Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
Coming off a 39 -6 week on Sunday, July 2nd in Belleville over the Quinte Skyhawks, the Sault Varsity Sabercats returned home to play in front of their home crowd after three games on the road and not playing in Sault Ste Marie since June 10th, the Sabercats hosted the visiting Clarington Knights on Saturday, July 8th.
At 11:06 of the opening quarter, Sabercat quarterback Matti Tucker scored the first major of the contest with a ten yard carry to give the Sault a 6 – 0 lead. Ty Koski found the uprights for the extra point with a Sabercat convert. Giving the Sault a 13 – 0 lead at 8:31, Ronan Provenzano rushed for an 18 yard touchdown carry. Koski added to the lead with his second successful convert of the afternoon. At 5:44 of the first quarter and scoring his second major of the game, Provenzano runs for a three yard Sabercat touchdown to bring the lead to 20 – 0. Koski kicked the extra point for his third convert for the Sault. With 91 seconds remaining in the opening quarter, Koski finds the uprights with a Sabercat 16 yard field goal to give the Sault a 24 – 0 lead. At 10:20 of the second quarter, Ty Koski kicks the ball through the Knights endzone for two points to increase the lead to 36 – 0 for the Sabercats. Adding to their lead, the Sabercats add to two point to their lead with Clarington surrendering two points with kneeling in their own endzone at 7:53 of the quarter. At 6:05 of the second quarter, Sabercat quarterback finds Matt Malcolm in the Knights endzone with a three yard pass to give the Sault a 33 – 0 lead. Koski gives the Sabercats a 34 – 0 lead after another convert. At halftime the Knights requested an end to the game at halftime due to a shortage of players due to injury to give the Sault the 34 – 0 win.
Sabercat Jamie Antonello told Saultsports that “I certainly was happy with our effort and play today despite the limited time. Our guys came out fast and played well today. We wanted to finish off the season on a high and 6-0 on the regular season certainly does that. Defensively we were stout and held them to negative yards of offense which is unbelievable. Credit to our players and coaches for a great day on that side of the ball. Special teams played a big role today as they have all year long, we recovered two kickoffs and were able to control field position all game. Offensively our running game controlled the pace and Tucker made the plays he had to through the air.”
“Standouts in our win today defensively were Nik Vecchio who paced us with four solo tackles and a pass breakup. Ethan Scott also had a sack, Ethan Carchidi had a safety and Landen Trecartin recovered two kickoffs. Offensively Ronan Provenzano had four carries for 73 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Malcolm had five touches for 85 yards and a touchdown. Matti Tucker also scored on a 10 yard run and finished the game with 7 completions on 11 attempts passing for 122 yards and one touchdown. Ty Koski kicked four converts and one field goal to round out the scoring, said Antonello.
“We head into our bye excited by the prospect of playoff football and look forward to the week of practice to get better,” added Antonello.
Visit Freeze Frame Photos by Bob Davies photo gallery of the Sault Sabercats versus the Clarington Knights.
Watch the Knights versus Sabercats on-demand on Saultsports TV.
The Sabercats will now wait for their next opponent in the first round of the 2023 OSFL playoffs on Saturday, July 22nd after a bye week on July 15th.
