Hurricanes remain undefeated with win over London

It was a cold and windy night for Junior football at Ivor Wynne Stadium as the hometown Hurricanes played host to the visiting London Beefeaters. As the two teams took to the field Friday night, the skies opened up and the rain began to fall, adding to the already trying conditions that the Beefeaters and Hurricanes had to face.

It was expected that the crowd would be witness to a running game for the majority of the night and that is what they got. Both teams took few chances through the air thus eliminating opportunities for mistakes due to a Quarterback’s poor grip on a wet ball.

The first quarter was played between the 40’s for both teams as they looked to get a feel for one another and figure out the best way to attack. The Beefeaters were able to open the scoring in the second quarter with a 35-yard field goal with 12:49 remaining on the clock. Hamilton was able to answer right back by driving down the field and finishing it off with a 3-yard rushing touchdown by Ryan Kotar with only 3:17 left in the half.

Hamilton was able to take a lead into the locker room, albeit, a slim lead. London was able to generate some confusion up front with different defensive looks and tight coverage on the receivers that resulted in Quarterback sacks, interceptions, and turnovers on downs. The Beefeaters kicking game proved to be too much for the Canes as it pinned the Hurricane
returners deep in their own end zone and allowed the Beefeaters to pick up two singles by not allowing the ball to be brought out past the goal line. Unfortunately, this was the end of London’s scoring for the day.

Coach Hayes and the Offense turned it up a notch by hitting on huge plays, such as, Matt Francis connecting with Matt Coates for 75 yards which set up a 2 yard rush by Ryan Kotar putting Hamilton in front 14-5 in the third quarter.

The Hamilton Defense would not be outdone by their Offensive brethren. The D-Line was making it very hard for the Beefeaters to get anything going with the running game by stuffing the inside run and locking down the outside contain.

Anthony “Dingo” Dinguanna was a force to be reckoned with and was able to shut down many plays by plugging up the holes and feasting on the London Quarterbacks. The Hamilton Defense was able to stall the Beefeaters on every drive and force them to punt, which gave the Hurricanes Offense more opportunities to put together scoring drives of their own.

Matt Francis went right back to work in the fourth quarter connecting once again with Matt Coates, this time for a 54 yard touchdown pass and catch. The Canes didn’t let off the gas for the rest of the game. Kotar added his third rushing TD of the game and Francis completed another touchdown pass to Malcolm Paul to put the Canes up 35-5 in the fourth quarter.
As the clock expired, Hamilton capped off another impressive drive with a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Troy Croonen, who was the workhorse of the Hurricanes running game throughout the night. Kicker Chris Bartolomeo connected on all six of his convert attempts.
The final score saw Hamilton defeat the London Beefeaters 42-5 and improve their record to 6-0.

Hamilton is on the road in week seven as they travel to Chinguacousy Park to take on the Brampton Bears. Game time is 8pm.