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There’s no province like Ontario when it comes to handing out banners at the end of the year, and hopefully I can help breakdown all the chaos with OFSAA recently releasing the bowl matchup for the 2018 edition at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa. There’s nine games to go over, and hundreds of teams still dreaming of a path to the Festival, so we’ll be doing this iN a special three part series breaking down each day individually. This isn’t the easiest event to track, so if you spot any mistakes or information I may have missed, please email me at [email protected].
Let the madness begin.
READ HERE: Day 1 Breakdown – Day 2 Breakdown
Day 3
CENTRAL BOWL
CWOSSA (Central Western) – CFC50 Jacob Hespeler 2017 representatives
Jacob Hespeler, St. James, Assumption, North Park, Resurrection, St. David, St. Mary’s
Hold onto the nearest object, because we need to cover a lot of ground to figure out the champion out of the Central Western region. This playdown is made up of schools from five leagues with programs all around Waterloo, Guelph, Brant County, and Owen Sound. CFC50 Jacob Hespeler have owned this region for the last two years, and they’ve found no resistance on the public side of Waterloo, with their closest game being a 36-12 blowout over BCI, and their largest a 68-0 beatdown against Waterloo-Oxford. The Hawks take on Sir John A. MacDonald in the semifinals tomorrow, and while it isn’t listed, I imagine the championship game will also be played this week as well.
Switching our attention to Guelph, thankfully they’ve already done the heavy lifting for us with St. James bypassing Centennial Collegiate 50-16 in the District 10 Finals. This was the first title in the programs history, and sets up a fun journey to watch with them looking to end it with another OFSAA banner to hang in the rafters. They now prepare to take on St. Mary’s out of District 1/7 on Friday night in the CWOSSA quarterfinals, with the winner moving on to play the winners out of District 8 in the semis.
Who could that be you ask? Well we’ll get our answer on Thursday night when Resurrection clash with St. David in the D8 Finals. Resurrection finished first during the regular season, while St. David finished third, but after a gutsy performance in the semifinals, now St. David has their chance to shock again. Resurrection lost one game all year, and you better believe it was against St. David, so you pick what narrative you’d like to run with, regardless I think we’ll have a great game on our hands.
The other semi will feature the winner out of Waterloo County – who should be Hespeler unless something wild happens – and they’ll take on the winner out of Brant County. The finals are set in Brantford, but we’re still waiting on the results from the semis featuring Assumption v.s Paris, and North Park v.s Brantford CI. At the risk of looking stupid, I’m going to predict Assumption and North Park made it out alive, but we’ll update when the scores become available.
Once they finally determine the contestants, the CWOSSA finals will take place on November 20th.
CISAA (Independents) – CFC10 St. Michael’s College 2017 representatives
St. Michael’s College automatic bid
After sorting out all of that, CISAA makes life a lot easier for us. CFC10 St. Michael’s College received the automatic bid once again, due to ineligibility rules with out of province players and OFSAA. The Kerry Blues didn’t disapoint last year defeating CFC50 Cardinal Newman in a thriller. St. Michael’s College have won eight OFSAA banners, including the distinction as the inaugural Metro Bowl champions back in 1982.
SIMCOE BOWL
GBSSA (Georgian Bay) – Natnyr Shores 2017 representatives
Barrie North, Joan of Arc, Eastview, St. Thomas Aquinas
After representing the region last year, Nantyr Shores didn’t field a senior team in 2018 (they still are playing junior), so we are guaranteed to see a new champion our of Simcoe County. CFC50 Barrie North has been dominant with a flawless 6-0 record and a score differential of 224-14, but they’re going to be in for a scrap on Thursday night when they take on Eastview. Despite their crazy score differential, Barrie North only defeated Eastview 11-8 earlier in the year, so it should be another epic showdown to deterime who heads to the GBSSA finals.
Waiting for them will be the champion from the Catholic side of Simcoe County, which as per usual is being dominated by CFC50 Joan of Arc. The Knights made four straight appearances at OFSAA from 2012-2015, and they’d want nothing more than to reclaim their crown in Georgian Bay. If you thought Barrie North had some scary numbers, Joan of Arc has outscored their opponents 213-6 this season, but they’ll need to take care of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the public champions before they allow OFSAA dreams to dance around their bed. It was shocking when Joan of Arc fell to Bear Creek in 2016, and shocking once again when Nantyr Shores took them out last year, so there’s a lot of animosity going on in the region, and only a couple week’s to sort it out.
The GBSSA finals will take place on November 17th.
LOSSA (Lake Ontario) – CFC50 Holy Trinity 2017 representatives
Holy Trinity, St. Mary
Who doesn’t love a win and you’re in scenario? Saves you the headache. CFC50 Holy Trinity (Courtice) are also looking for a painless experience as they search for a chance at back-to-back OFSAA banners. Paul Dwyer owned this region for a little while appearing in three straight Festivals from 2014-2016, but the tides have turned with Holy Trinity turning into the class of the region the last two years, while Dwyer took a step back. The Titans main competition this season has been St. Mary – who’ve made two appearances at the big dance – but it looks like it’ll be a steep uphill climb if they want to catch Holy Trinity, who won their season finale 35-0. In all fairness nothing was on the line with seeding set, but the Titans have been putting up scores in bunches with that 35-0 shutout they closest game all year, and they still have a solid nucleus of returning players who’ve towed this road before.
Holy Trinity take on Donald A. Wilson on Wednesday in one semifinal, and St. Mary take on Paul Dwyer on Thursday.
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