Ontario (Peel): Panthers oust defending champs in dramatic finish to reach final

In the regular season, St. Marguerite d’Youville proved how talented its team was by going undefeated.

In Friday’s semifinal, the Panthers showed it had the kind of character that wins championships.

Emmanuel Isaac kicked a 28-yard field goal to send the game to overtime and Damian Halstead overcame a hurting knee to score the winning touchdown in the extra period, as the Panthers edged the Notre Dame Knights 23-16 to advance to the title game in the Region of Peel Secondary Schools Athletics Association.

“That was an amazing battle,” Panthers coach John Paul Falacho said.

“Their guys stepped up when they needed to, our guys stepped up when we needed to. We knew coming in that we had to play hard for 48 minutes. It was going to be a battle right to the end.”

Glenroy Roper’s field goal put the Knights ahead, 16-13, with 1:47 left in the fourth quarter and the Panthers on the brink of elimination.

But that was just enough time for d’Youville to take the ball within field-goal range and Isaac didn’t disappoint, tying the game with 17.8 seconds left on the clock.

Overtime opened on the 35-yard line and the Panthers needed just five plays to reach the end zone. Halstead finished the drive barreling through the Knights defence for his second TD of the afternoon.

When it was the Knights’ turn on offence, they couldn’t execute. Their last three plays were a loss of yardage, a sack on their quarterback and a fumble.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Falacho said. “We truly feel it could have been us or them any given day.”

It’s largely been a cakewalk for the Panthers this season, except when they met the defending champion Knights.

D’Youville won a close one, 15-6, in the two schools’ opening game before the Panthers mowed down their next five opponents.

“All through this season, they’ve been saying that our team’s character hasn’t been tested,” Falacho said.

“We’ve been winning games 60-nothing, yes. But when it’s a close game, that’s when you know who your true leaders are on the field. We got guys here with a lot of heart.”

For Notre Dame, which nearly shut down its program in the offseason because it didn’t have a coaching staff, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Having come close to winning in regulation and seeing it slip away in overtime, however, was too much to bear on some of the players who fell on their backs on the field and broke into tears.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game exactly like this before. Two teams pretty evenly matched and that showed on the scoreboard,” Knights coach Dario Pretto said.

“Our kids played hard. To come back and make it this far and push these guys, I think they’re the best team, to the limit and beyond, I think we did very, very well and we should be proud of ourselves.”

It was a seesaw battle between two top-notch programs that refused to lose, but it was d’Youville who started hot.

Halstead ran half the length of the field for a TD and Isaac scored the extra point to put the Panthers on the board first 7-0.

But Isaac was just beginning to heat up. He kicked a 35-yard field goal late in the second quarter to extend d’Youville’s lead to 10-0.

The Knights’ defence grounded the Panthers’ vaunted running game and then on offence found a break when running back Brittley Mokube scored a TD with 2:26 remaining in the first half. Roper’s extra point made it 10-7.

Isaac kept the Panthers afloat with another field goal, but the Knights finally caught up when Stone Sousa ran for a touchdown to tie the game at 13-all midway through the third quarter.

The teams exchanged possessions since that point, but neither would convert on their chances.

Notre Dame threatened late in regulation when Mokube broke loose for a 30-yard run that was stopped by the d’Youville defence on the Panthers’ 20-yard line. The Knights settled for a Roper field goal to go ahead 16-13.

It looked like a comfortable lead, with the time down to less than two minutes and the Panthers beginning their drive deep in their own territory.

But Jadon Johnson, d’Youville’s top running back, sprinted for 30 yards on one play to get Isaac in position for the game-tying field goal.

“We’ve been doing the two-minute drill all week last week, and it paid off in the end,” Falacho said.