Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
On Saturday, September 13th, at Rocky DiPietro Field in Sault Ste. Marie, the Sault College Cougars (2-3) hosted the unbeaten St. Clair Saints (5-0), the defending Canadian Junior Football League champions. Despite a resilient effort, the Cougars were overpowered by the league leaders, falling 66–25 in front of their home crowd.
The Saints wasted little time making an impact. At 10:16 of the opening quarter, Mo Ibraheen intercepted Cougars quarterback Grayson Weber and ran it back 33 yards for a defensive touchdown. With Joe Newton-Grain adding the convert, St. Clair was up 7–0. Less than a minute later, a conceded safety extended the lead to 9–0. Newton-Grain continued to showcase his consistency, kicking a 20-yard field goal early in the second quarter before MJ Doyle-Marshall punched in a three-yard rushing major, stretching the lead to 19–0.
The Cougars gave up their second safety at 9:44 of the second frame, putting them in a 21–0 hole. Sault College finally answered when Ethan Carchidi muscled across the goal line from one yard out to cut the deficit to 21–7 after a Nik Vecchio convert. But the Saints offense was relentless. Newton-Grain’s second field goal and a 35-yard touchdown connection between quarterback Michael Guenette and Cam St. Kitts-Park widened the margin to 31–10. Another conceded safety in the dying seconds of the half sent the Cougars to the locker room trailing 33–10.
St. Clair showed no signs of slowing down after halftime. Newton-Grain added his third field goal, followed by a 45-yard touchdown strike to Jayden Shallow to make it 43–10. Weber found Jaidan Trudeau in the endzone for a 15-yard touchdown to give the Cougars some life, but Doyle-Marshall answered with his second major, and Guenette continued to carve up the defense with touchdown passes to Malachi Jackson and Erhomo Iroriteraye. Heading into the fourth, St. Clair held a commanding 64–17 lead.
The Saints tacked on two more points from a safety midway through the final quarter, before the Cougars capped the scoring with a late push. Carchidi notched his second rushing touchdown of the afternoon with just 18 seconds remaining, followed by a two-point conversion pass from Weber to Ethan Rhoden, bringing the final to 66–25.
St Clair coach Mike LaChance told Saultsports that “It was a bit of a crazy game with flags on every other play. It made it really difficult for either team to settle into a groove. Those types of days make the product very unenjoyable for everyone. I was impressed with the size of the Cougars team and I already knew this, but Jayden Trudeau is a special talent who made a ton of plays today. A great kid who was with us in camp last year.”
LaChance said about the Cougars first season in the OFC, the Saints coach said “I don’t really put much stock into the first year thing because there is a ton of turnover at this level. We have 52 new players on our roster this year so it’s a constant rebuild and recruiting cycle every year. It’s a well coached team that plays hard. They are a positive addition to the conference.”
With the loss, the Cougars drop to 2–4 on the season as they head into a week-eight bye before traveling to the nation’s capital to face the Ottawa Sooners on September 27th at 2:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the Saints (6–0) will look to keep their perfect season alive when they return home to Windsor for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff against the GTA Grizzlies on September 20th.
