OFC Game of the Week (3): Geographical rivalry

The hottest rivalry in the Ontario Football Conference (OFC) is about to get underway this Saturday August 31st at the Mohawk Sports Complex at 8 p.m. between the 2-0 Hamilton Hurricanes (Home) and the 1-1 Burlington Braves (Visitor).

The original plan for this game was to honour the 1972 Hurricanes team at halftime, who were the last group from this franchise to actually win the CJFL National Championship. As a result of this achievement, they are also being inducted into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame, but unfortunately, the official halftime ceremony has now been moved to September 21st when the Canes host the defending 2012 OFC Champions, the London Beefeaters, as that game will be much closer to the actual Hall of Fame induction date.

Coming off of a dominant 51-0 victory over the GTA Bears, the Hurricanes proved once and for all why they’ve been the highest ranked OFC team according to the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) Power Ranking List since the very start of the season.

With a combined offensive total of 393 yards, and a defense that only allowed 35 total yards against, the Hurricanes sealed the victory in a convincing fashion. In the quarterback department, Denzel Rocha went 8 for 17 and 105 yards with one interception, Kyle Sewell went 5 for 8 and 102 yards with one interception and one touchdown, and Alex Hill went 4 for 7 and 76 yards with two touchdowns.

Kicker Bobby Frame had an incredible performance, scoring 15 points on the day, and sailing the ball way past the endzone on more than one occasion.

The remaining touchdowns came from WR Andrin Masotti (2), RB Ryan Kotar (1) who also had 14 carries for 124 yards, DB Jacob Barry (1) who scored off of an interception, and last but not least – last week’s Offensive Player of the Game WR Matt Coates (1) who had 5 receptions for a total of 94 yards. Additional scoring also came from the defense, who managed to sack the Bears quarterback for an unheard of total of six times, which then resulted in three safeties.

With arguably the best offense and the best defense after only two weeks, the Hurricanes are certainly the team to beat at this point, but it should also be noted that the Windsor AKO Fratmen and the St. Leonard Cougars are undefeated as well, and by no means have Hamilton been crowned the Conference Champions just yet. There’s still plenty of season left.

And if the Braves have anything to say about it, they’ll most definitely be looking to hand Hamilton their first loss of the season. Currently ranked in the #5 position in the OFC, and #9 on the CJFL Power List, the Braves are not a team that the Hurricanes can afford to underestimate. Despite losing last week to the Twin Cities Predators by a close score of 24-17 in double overtime, the Braves are certainly one of the toughest and better coached teams in the entire OFC.

Against the Predators, Braves QB Mickey Trumper went 7 for 15 and 95 yards with one interception and one touchdown, which was thrown to WR Nicholas Deslandes who had three catches for 27 yards. DB Cory Pattison also had a touchdown, which came as a result of a fumble recovery. Leading the defense with tackles were Tyler Garland and Steve Connery – each with four apiece.

With Hamilton and Burlington being so geographically close to each other, it’s impossible for the players on both sides of the ball not to get incredibly amped up for this game. Meeting twice each season, this match-up is a true rivalry in every sense of the word, and it’s been going on for well over 50 years.

With both teams looking to make a statement in this game, it should definitely be one of the better games all season long.

You won’t want to miss this one, football fans!

 

Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.

Leave a Reply