With 25% of the team's players being from the Sturgeon area, the North Bay Bulldogs hosted their 2017 home openers in Sturgeon Falls this weekend to recognize the Sturgeon Falls community's contribution to Bulldogs football.
The Bulldogs gave the Sturgeon Falls fans a lot to cheer about as they dumped the visiting Lions 39-14 to even their record to 1-1 on the season.
The Bulldogs installed a new offensive package this week and decided to open with it to test how the kids executed it. It passed the tests as eight plays after kickoff, Sturgeon Falls player Philip Fortin finished off an impressive drive with a 7 yard scoring run.
Lyric Loranger kicked the PAT and the Dogs were up 7-0.
Fortin finished the day with 125 yards on the ground on 20 carries and found the end zone twice.
With the Dogs defense holding strong the Bulldogs offense went back to work and drove down to the 24 yard line where QB Riley Geisler then completed his first pass of the day on a 24 yard play action pass to Lyric Loranger pass to put the Dogs up 14-0.
Later in the game with defense keeping the Lions offense under constant pressure, the offense sputtered with errant snaps finding itself on a 4th and very long and the Lions earned some good field position.
The Lions continued to work hard and finding some success passing, Lukus Dold hauled in a 12 yard pass in the endzone to cut the lead in half.
With the game still tight the Dogs offense went back to work and saw Adam Courchesne break a couple tackles and find open space on a 43 yard run to paydirt.
Defensive Coordinator Martin Morin made some in-game adjustments that tightened up the defense and forced the Lions to punt the next few drives.
On the offensive side of the ball the Dogs relied on their speed and blocking to put together a solid drive capped by a 33 yard Riley Geisler pass to Adam Courchesne giving the Dogs command of the game at 26 - 7 in the 3rd.
The Lions came back and posted a drive of their own where David Bazzo found a seam in the Dogs defense to score from 22 yds out. The game had tightened up once again with the Lions only 2 scores away from taking the lead.
The Dogs offensive coaches made adjustments and to a series of plays that the Lions had trouble stopping and had to grind out a long drive starting deep in their own end. The drive featured an exciting 26 yard run by Brayden Campbell, ate up 7 minutes and ended with a 10 yard Philip Fortin scoring run behind the powerful blocking of the offensive line.
Now down 32-14 the Lions were forced to pass to capture larger yardages quickly. Late in the game Cody Lavergne was in good position and made a play on the ball, intercepting a pass and running it back 67 yards to score the game ending touchdown.
The Lions continued to press and forced a fumble and then drove down to the 12 yard line where the defense showed great character and kept the offense out of the end zone as time ran out.
