ONT (EOFC B Final): Gaels edge Raiders

Last week in Alexandria, the Eastern Ontario Football Conference EOFC had the third-seed Glengarry Gaels and the fourth-seeded Cornwall Collegiate Raiders playing a ‘B’ final.

The Gaels defeated the Raiders 28-0 back in October and were riding on a four game win streak heading into Friday’s matchup. The previous week, the Raiders defeated St. Francis Xavier 49-6 to earn a spot in the final playoff game.

However, the Raiders ended up coming just shy of the upset on Friday.

Defense and weather were the story of this game.  The Gaels prevailed 9-6 over the Raiders.

The first half was scoreless with the biggest play would have been a 10-yard touchdown run from Neil Guillemard that ended up being called back on a penalty.

Some of the strongest winds of the year affected the passing game; however, early in the third Gaels quarterback McKenzie Dorn aired it out for a 48 yard pass and-run touchdown toss to Matt Jones.  The extra point attempts was blocked and the Gaels took  a 6-0 lead

There was a little bit of a lull (in the wind),” Dorn said. “In the huddle Matt looked me in the eye and said, “this is it, it’s time to throw it’ . . . we’ve played together a long time, we have good chemistry.

“I wasn’t surprised he was open.”

The play jump sparked the Gaels.  Nicholas Vaillancourt added a 23-yard field goal to go up 9-0 still in the third.

The touchdown also sparked the defense as they forced two huge fumbles halting potentially key drives for the Raiders late in the game. The Raiders eventually reached the end zone, however, it was too little too late as they failed to recover the onside kick in the final minutes of the game.

“Some key mistakes at important times really hurt us today,” said Raiders Head Coach Chris Sullivan.”It’s a young group of players we have here, and they’ll get better.”

The season comes to end for both team as the Tier 2 playoff format followed a “One and done” system.

“It’s kinda too bad (not getting to play for an overall Tier 2 crown),” Glengarry quarterback McKenzie Dorn said after the win, I feel confident we can play with the top teams.”

Those top teams are  Brockville Collegiate and North Grenville, who got to play in the ‘A’ final.  Both those teams have previously defeated the Gaels, over the opening two weeks of the season, when Glengarry failed to score a point.

“We just weren’t playing our best (at the start of the year),” said Dorn, of Dalkeith.”It’s unfortunate we had to play the top teams then.”