OFSAA Football Bowl Recap (Metro Bowl): #CFC50 St. Matthew defeats Michael Power/St. Joseph for their first ever OFSAA bowl title

Feature photo credit: Ryan McCabe

The script might have gone a little differently they had thought, but the end was all the #CFC50 St. Matthew Tigers cared about as they prevailed 28-7 over the Michael Power/St. Joseph Trojans in the Metro Bowl.

This game was memorable for a reason that neither coach would like to remember, with a combined 13 turnovers between the two programs. Each team struggled in different ways, with the Trojans tossing five interceptions, while the Tigers had issues holding onto the ball coughing up five fumbles.

With that said, boy did it make for an exciting game. Horatio Martin opened up the scoring early in this one with a five yard touchdown run that gave the Trojans a 7-0 lead. They would hold onto that lead before the final play of the quarter, when Brayden Casimiro took an interception 12 yards back to the house to knot the game up at 7-7.

A stalemate ensued as each team took turns playing hot potato with the ball, but eventually the Tigers would get themselves back on track with a one yard dash by Kian Williams, giving them a 14-7 lead going into halftime.

The game remained tight in the third quarter with both defences stepping up time and time again, and the points just wouldn’t come. Of note for Michael Power/St. Joseph was Thomas Manttari who totaled four tackles on the day, and helped forced the Tigers’ quarterbacks into 8 incompletions on 11 pass attempts.

Then just when it seemed like nobody would find the end zone again late in the fourth quarter, Williams bursted back onto the scene with back-to-back touchdown runs in just under two minutes, to all but secure St. Matthew’s first ever OFSAA bowl title.

Photo credit: Ryan McCabe

Tigers’ defensive standout Kately Joseph – who racked up six tackles in the victory – said his team didn’t come this far to go home empty handed,

“Halftime the coaches said just to stay disciplined because we knew we came a long way. We are from Ottawa, that is about a six hour drive, so we knew we weren’t leaving without that championship and without that ring.” he said with a glowing smile. “We wanted to represent our city, our school and the fans because we have a huge base of fans, so if anything our coaches told us to stay disciplined and we stepped up to the plate.”

While discipline is always easy in theory, Joseph said that his team had struggled at times with it throughout the year,

“Personally I think we were ready from the beginning, we just had to stay disciplined that’s the whole thing. The beginning of the season, we used to get in people’s heads and cause a lot of problems, but I feel like this game we had the right mentality, the whole team was ready to play. Even if we make a few mistakes, it happens, but we just learn from them and only thing we can do is get better”

Williams was the man of the hour after his three touchdown performance sent St. Matthew home as champions, and he will have a chance to do it all over next season entering his grade 12 year. Also contributing in a big way to the Tigers’ win was Jonathan Mufuta, who had 5 carries for 42 yards and one reception for 14 yards.

Much like Williams, St. Matthew will see a lot of players return next year to try and make it back-to-back championships, but if Kately could have it his way, they’d take on anyone right now,

“We were ready for every team, we ready for anybody, we strongly believe we are the best team in Canada right now, straight up.”

 

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