OVFL: Jayde Rowe leads Thunder to overtime victory…or did he?

The Etobicoke Eagles hosted the Toronto Thunder in varsity Ontario Varsity Football League (OVFL) action yesterday at Centennial Stadium. The game was one tremendous football game, back and forth, great defense, great offense, big plays, good execution. What makes it even more impressive is that it was the first game of the season and that much of spring practice was a challenge due to the amount of rain in Ontario. Nonetheless, these teams put on quite a show.

The scoring started early as the Toronto Thunder scored on their first drive of the game, culminating in a 45 yard touchdown run by Jayde Rowe (class 2012). The Eagles responded on their first play from scrimmage with a nice naked boot throw from Izvor Gnjidic (class 2012) to James Welton (who’s father was a CIS bowl MVP for the Guelph Gryphons) for 48 yards. The drive resulted in a 35 yard field by KJ Chung (Wilfrid Laurier) making the score 7 to 3 with 7:41 remaining in the quarter.

It did not take long for the Thunder to respond, this time Rowe taking it 72 yards for a touchdown. It looked like at this point Rowe could not be stopped. The back and forth nature of the game continued when the Eagles drove the field and Gnjidic hooked up with wide-out Dylan Belair (who played for the Chilliwack Huskers in 2010) for an 8 yard fade pass touchdown.

On the ensuing kick off the Thunder returner fumbled the ball and the eagles recovered the ball on their 42 yard line with 1:10 to go in the quarter. This looked like a point in the game where momentum shifted. The Eagles drove down the field and eventually scored on an 8 yard TD pass from Gnjidic to Wayne Moore to make the score 17 to 14 for the eagles with 12:34 to go in the half.

The teams defenses began to hold up for the rest of the half. The thunder kicked a field goal with 0:53 seconds remaining to tie the game. The Eagles then ‘hurried’ down the field quite nicely, paced by some big plays by receiver Kevin Bradfield (Toronto Varsity Blues commit). In field goal range with 8 seconds remaining the Eagles scrimmaged the ball and Gnjidic scrambled and threw the ball incomplete but the time had expired and no points were scored.

The second half saw the same sort of back and forth nature as the first half. The Eagles went up on a KJ Chung field goal with 9:59 remaining in the third quarter.

In the ‘bizarre play’ of the game, the Eagles offense were deep in the Thunder end, QB Gnjidic scrambles and fumbled the ball. A Thunder player returned it over half only to be tackled and stripped of the ball. When the ball was loose a Thunder player illegally interfered with an Eagle player, and even though the Thunder picked the ball up and returned it within 10 yards of the end zone, the Eagles were awarded the ball at the spot of the infraction. A rule not many people know, especially the ‘unhappy’ fans in the stands.

Early in the 4th quarter, in the red zone, the Eagles went to their ‘short yardage package’ and on the 2nd play James Welton (who was lined up at QB) rushed the ball in from 5 yards out, putting the Eagles up 27 to 17 with 10:13 to go in the second half.

Coach DiMaria made a QB change inserting Stefan Edwards in…and it worked. Edwards marched the team down for another score, the drive being the result of some Edwards runs and Edwards scrambles and throws. Rowe capped the drive off with a 1 yard run with 6:04 remaining making the score 27 to 23 after the convert was missed.

The Eagles took the ball and put together a nice ‘time killing’ drive. The Eagles attempted a long field goal with around a minute and a half left in the game to put themselves up by a converted touchdown. It backfired when the Thunder returned the missed attempt down to the Eagles 8 yard line. Two plays later Rowe ran in it from 5 yards with 1:27 remaining.

The story line continued to fit the script as the Eagles marched down the field and with 5 seconds remaining KJ hit another field goal to send the game into overtime at 30 to 30.

Overtime:

The Thunder started on offense and 3 plays later Rowe scored (convert good). The Eagles more methodically reached the end zone on their first possession culminating in a Belair fade touchdown (great adjustment).

The second overtime saw the Eagles miss a field goal attempt and on the first play from scrimmage for the Thunder, Rowe ran an unbelievable run all the way for the TD – final score 36 to 30.

But hold on…rumour after the game from the players said the Thunder played with illegal players. We hope not. This morning the OVFL reported a 20 to 0 win for Etobicoke which is the ‘forfeit’ score the league rewards.

Players to Watch:

Thunder:
Jayde Rowe RB
Micheal Topolinski DB (McMaster commit)
Ramone Richards DE
Kadeem Ellis DB

Eagles:
Wayne Moore RB
Kevin Bradfield REC (U of T commit)
Dylan Belair
Kingsley Amakwaa RB
Broderick Martin DE

CIS Scouts in the crowd:
Pat Tracey – Queens
John Engel – Toronto
Stefan Ptzasek & Stu Smith – McMaster

CIS coaches on the Eagle staff:
John Forbes, Harry LaFlamme, Dan Younis