OVFL: Varsity Bucs look to build on strong Week 3 performance

The Newmarket Varsity Bucs certainly weren’t expecting an easy two-game road trip to kick off their season, but nobody could have imagined the hardships the Bucs were forced to endure during a nine-day span early in the season.

The Bucs opened up with a 50-0 loss against the Metro Toronto Wildcats. A few days later, their head coach resigned for personal reasons, and then the team traveled to Niagara where they took another 50-0 pounding.

“The boys and I were very disheartened, it was certainly a wake up call,” said new Head Coach Andrew Edge after the first two games. “It’s one of those things that we had to get through as a team.”

But in Edge’s first full week as head coach, he reevaluated his assets and formed a new game plan. The team moved from running the option on offence to create more of a balanced approach that reflects the skills of their players.

“We want to run up middle and pass more,” said Edge. “We’ve had a wonderful receiving core, some serious weapons that we underutilized to go along with talented running backs where the option isn’t their strength.”

The Bucs also brought in Warren Crane, head coach of the York University Lions, to tighten up their secondary and help defensive backs with reads and positioning.

Whatever else they did leading up to their Week 3 home opener versus Etobicoke, it worked. The Bucs came through with a 21-14 victory, their first of the season, to restore their confidence and expose that the adjustments they’ve made since their blowout losses to open the season are working.

QB Mac Scott threw for 121 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Craig Myers pounded the Etobicoke defence for 87 yards and a touchdown. The defence was strong, special teams effective, and the Bucs are looking to extend the streak to 2 against the visiting Kingston Grenadiers this weekend.

Kingston is coming off a 21-7 loss to the previously winless Markham Raiders, so if the Bucs continue to improve and fine-tune throughout the week, they could beat the odds and find themselves at 2-2 when the weekend is all done.

“I’m looking at this game to gage where we’re at on the continuim, the first two were the toughest, theyre behind us,” said Edge. “For the rest, we’re looking at a 4-4, 5-3 season on the end.”