The Limestone District Gren – adiers are still searching for that elusive doubleheader sweep.
For the third time in as many weeks in the Ontario Varsity Football League season, there was good news and bad news for the local organization on Saturday.
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The positive performance was a much-needed victory for the junior G-Men, who improved to 1-2 with a dramatic 26-24 win over the host Cumberland Panthers.
But the Kingston-based outfit couldn’t make it a two-for-two day as the first-year senior squad, after opening the season with an overtime loss and a victory, was skunked 25-0 by Cumberland.
“I thought this was the week we were going to do it,” Gren – adiers governor Peter Wilkie said when asked about that desired double triumph.
“But the senior game was really a stinker. I can’t tell you how many mistakes were made.”
The result has to be a wakeup call for a Grenadiers squad that might have been feeling a bit too good about itself after falling in overtime to the defending-champion Toronto Thunder and then beating the Brampton Bulldogs.
A surprise rainout last week for a game in Huronia killed some momentum, but Wilkie wasn’t ready to make excuses.
“There were kids missing practices and they looked very disjointed,” Wilkie said. “We never had a cohesive unit all week. There are proms and exams, but all teams have the same problems. These guys are embarrassed about it.”
It was a much more enjoyable afternoon for the junior G-Men, who knocked off a Cumberland team that entered the game with a 2-1 record.
The Panthers took their first lead of the game — 24-23 — on a touchdown with about three minutes left, but the Limestoners drove down the field and gave Scott Keeley a 42-yard field goal attempt with 30 seconds left.
As he had done three previous times in the game, the Perth kicker split the uprights for the decisive points.
“They finally played to their potential,” Wilkie said of the younger G-Men. “It’s a big win. They needed that.”
Wilkie was especially happy for head coach Ron Dickey, whose squad suffered a disheartening 33-13 loss in its most recent game two weeks ago against Brampton.
Other standouts for the juniors were Carson Andrews out of Quinte in Belleville, who returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown, and Sam Jamieson of Frontenac, who had a 50-yard return on a missed field goal.
The G-Men return to Loyalist Collegiate this coming Saturday for a doubleheader against the rival Ottawa Myers Riders.
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