For Coach Thompson and his varsity Hawkeyes, the season could not have started any better. After losing the coin toss to Brantford who elected to kickoff first, WR Jordan Duncan took the opening kickoff 91 yards and scored a touchdown.
After that, Oshawa didn’t look back and never let go of their lead enroute to a 22-14 home opener win against the Brantford Bisons. On the Hawkeyes first defensive drive DT number 75 Michael Ostapchuk recorded a sack to force a 3rd and long. That sack turned out to be the first of many for the Oshawa defence. The very next play the Brantford QB threw an interception to Hawkeyes CB Mekai Clarke at the Hawks own 15-yard line.
Penalties killed Oshawa’s next offensive drive forcing them to punt on 4th down. The punt was blocked by Brantford who scooped the ball up and took it to the 4 yard line. On 4th and goal from the seven, Brantford threw a TD pass and nailed their extra point tying the game at 7.
Jordan Duncan turned out to be a headache for the opposing defence as well after making a spectacular catch on a 3rd and long play to keep the Hawkeyes drive going. Duncan finished the game with 254 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
QB Harrison Quinlan who Coach T says is a converted WR had a solid game and spread the ball around well. With less then 5 minutes left in the half he threw a tight ball over the middle to WR Dalton Robinson who got the ball to the 1-yard line. Their offense failed to score a major but Kicker Colin Menzies was able to put 3 on the board making the score 10-7 Oshawa.
The Bison’s answered right back after the Hawkeyes defense was called for 4 penalties in one drive. This allowed the Bisons to move down field quickly and score a touchdown from 1-yard out making the score 14-10.
The Bison’s got the ball back quickly but after a monstrous sack again by Michael Ostapchuk and a failed fake punt, the Hawkeyes offense got the ball at the Brantford 5 yard line with under a minute to go in the half. Oshawa made Brantford pay for their curious questionable play call after Quinlan threw a 5 yard touchdown pass to Duncan making the score 16-14 at the half.
Midway through the 3rd quarter the Hawkeyes QB threw a perfect ball 34 yards to number 34 Evan Rutherford for a touchdown making the score 22-14 which proved to be the last score of the game. During the 4th quarter Oshawa’s defence kept piling up the penalties and the entire team finished the game with 14 penalties for 145 yards.
Coach T said after the game that part of the mental mistakes could be attributed to having such a young team and being the first game of the season. Coach T also said that the Hawkeyes philosophy was to “be aggressive on special team allowing and denying yards. Defence wins the game, and the offense decides by how much.” That philosophy was evident during the game as Oshawa’s defence finished the game with 6 interceptions and 5 sacks. As well they were aggressive in all phases of special teams except for punt protection as the team allowed 3 blocked punts. Coach T said that “punt protection was (blank) and will be worked a lot Tuesday”.
It easy to see that the coaches know what they are doing with this young team and have each and every player contributing in some form. If their defence can get turnovers like they did yesterday and special teams can have the offence starting beyond their 30 yard line, then you should expect to see the Hawkeyes in the playoffs later this year.
Player of the Game, WR Jordan Duncan.
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