Cougars make varsity football playoffs

Not even a shutout loss could put a damper on the Chatham-Kent Cougars’ winning weekend.

The Cougars clinched a playoff berth in the Ontario Football Conference’s varsity division despite a 20-0 loss to the Twin Cities Predators in Saturday’s regular-season finale.

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The Cougars tied for the fourth and final playoff spot with the Toronto Jr. Argonauts at 3-5-0. Chatham-Kent won the tiebreaker by virtue of its 16-7 win over Toronto on July 4.

The Cougars’ prize for making the playoffs is a rematch with the first-place Predators (7-0-1) this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Waterloo.

The Bantam Cougars missed the playoffs with a 4-4 record after losing 42-12 to the Sarnia Sturgeon on Sunday.

The Peewee Cougars advance to their championship game after beating the Oakville Titans 47-6 on Sunday for an 8-0 record. They visit the Forest City Thunderbirds for the final at 3 p.m. Saturday in London.

The Junior Varsity Cougars visit Sarnia on Friday for their regular-season finale.

VARSITY: At Waterloo, the Cougars trailed 3-0 at halftime and 6-0 after three quarters to the undefeated Predators.

Jake Langstaff led the defence with nine tackles, four sacks and a forced fumble.

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Brenden Thompson made eight tackles, Chris Moore had six and a sack, Zach Shuian also had six tackles and Jeremiah Hamilton added four tackles and an interception.

Josh Woodman made four catches for 75 yards and Cody St. Pierre had 43 receiving yards.

The Cougars will face the Predators for the third time Saturday. They lost 38-12 in the first meeting June 5, also at Waterloo.

BANTAM: At Sarnia, Brady Shepherd caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Cunha in the second quarter.

Cody Miller added a two-yard TD run in the third.

Cunha ran 16 times for 127 yards. Quarterback John McCauley was 6-of-12 for 97 yards.

Keenan Clarke made 12 tackles, Spencer Clarke had 11 and Justin Markovich made eight. Austin Williams recovered a fumble.

The Cougars placed sixth out of 10 teams with their .500 record.

PEEWEE: At Chatham, Brady Pataki scored four touchdowns and ran for 121 yards at the Chatham-Kent Community Athletic Complex.

Liberty Rountree added 54 rushing yards and one TD.

Trent Scaman caught a 25-yard TD pass from Kelton Evans.

Owen Dorssers kicked five extra points and a 16-yard field goal. Ross Krieger caught a two-point convert from Evans.

The Cougars allowed their first points of the season after seven straight shutouts. They outscored teams by a combined 355-6.

“The pressure is now off the zero-point season and we can focus solely on beating Forest City next week in the championship game,” head coach Kevin Pugh said. “It was impressive how the boys just kept playing hard and did not hang their heads.”

Kenny Levesque had two interceptions and Nolan Hakr made one.

Alex Formosa, Austin Miller, Quentin Forgie and Dorssers shut down the Titans’ running game, while Dylan Beaumont and Spencer Pugh grounded Oakville’s passing attack.