OVFL: Win sends Hamilton Ironmen to London for semi-finals

“Obviously I’m very happy with the win,” Underhill reiterated, “the only criticism I could offer is our slow start on offence.”

Slow starts are nothing new to the Ironmen, however their potent offence always seems to find their footing while the opposing offence is still looking for its legs. Hamilton’s strength has been in piling up points on their opponents, building leads which Hamilton’s cast iron defence has yet to relinquish.

Only twice this season has Hamilton failed to score at least 20 points and only twice has Hamilton won by less than 7, the latter happening back in week 5 against these same Sabrecats. Round two had a much different storyline as Underhill’s squad easily dispatched a Sault Ste Marie team which only 6 weeks ago took Hamilton deep into the fourth quarter.

Making the win more impressive was the fact that stud quarterback Alex Hill wasn’t exactly doing his best Tom Brady impression last week, leaving much of the work to the running game.

“Jeremy Haggarty had a big game on the ground for us and Josh Lolli, our 350lb defensive lineman, ran in a touchdown for us on the goal line,” chuckled Undrhill, “it was nice to see him score. And it was really nice to see our running game pick up the slack on offence.”

While the emergence of the running game was a bonus for Hamilton’s pass-happy offence, the defence continued its stellar play, which has been a staple for the whole season, holding the Sabrecats to a meager 5 yards passing.

Making the whole feat even more impressive (as if it could be any more impressive) was the fact that Hamilton was missing seven starters in last week’s blowout win…which begs the question: who can stop the mighty Ironmen? Underhill has reason to believe that London could.

“London is a very strong team. They have several players that could be playing on CIS teams,” he said, “we know that if we played them one hundred times, we wouldn’t beat them one hundred times and they wouldn’t beat us either. They have a size advantage on us and they probably have a deeper team than we do…but I know we can beat them.”

While Hamilton has beaten several good teams this season by large margins, they’ve yet to play a team like the London Mustangs. Despite the obvious fact that London and Hamilton remain the only two undefeated teams in the league, the similarities between the two are striking. Both teams play a very stingy, opportunistic defensive game, keeping opposing offences in check, while capitalizing on turnovers. While both run a very intricate offensive system, led by two of the best quarterbacks in the OVFL.

The Mustangs’ Colin Drennan has thrown for 1721 yards on the season with 20 touchdowns against only 3 interceptions. Hill, who missed one game due to a graduation ceremony, has thrown for 1616 yards with 21 touchdown passes against 8 interceptions. If there is any parity at all, it appears to be in the running game where London has the edge. The Ironmen are hoping to keep the game close, as not to let the Mustangs run wild on them in the second half.

“London has had a lot of lopsided blowouts this season where the game has been over early,” observed Underhill, “we want to keep it close and compete near the end. We’re going to be relying on our schemes, our work ethic and our big players to make plays. We want to fight it out at the end and hopefully come out on top.”

Whatever the outcome, this one is sure to be a barnburner as the Hamilton Ironmen (9-0) travel to London Saturday night to take on the Mustangs (9-0) at TD Waterhouse Stadium with a trip to the OVFL Finals on the line. Game time is scheduled for 7:00pm.