On the opening night of the inaugural Ontario Power 5 Football League (OP5FL) season, the Sault Steelers headed east on Saturday, June 8th for their 2024 Ontario’s premier men’s football league season opener to face their northern Ontario rivals, the Sudbury Spartans at James Jerome Sports Complex.
Sault Steelers (22) @ (6) Sudbury Spartans
Michael Reid (1 touchdown kick on kick return/1 rushing touchdown)
Liam McFayden (touchdown pass from Ryan Yost)
Brady Smith (Rouge/3 Extra Points)
Steeler Jonathan Bujold told Saultsports after the season opener that “I am very proud of all 26 guys who made this trip. We challenged them this off-season to return to old school, hard-nosed Steelers Football, and we did just that. Every man on this roster played like a warrior today and I couldn’t be more proud.”
Michael Reid told Saultsports that “honestly that biggest difference was our adjustments. We’ve been running a new offensive scheme and due to low numbers at practice we never got live reps against real competition to today. We had to work out some kinks, but once we did we starting rolling and it was over from there. As usual, our defense was lights out. We had a lot of guys step up and make great plays, especially at DB like Brandon Grigg. Our bend but don’t break mentality really shined today when we made a huge goal line stand going into the half, set up by a huge hit from Justin Cond at safety.”
Quarterback Ryan Yost added that ” I am so proud of this team, we went down to Sudbury with 26 players dressed and battled for four whole quarters against a great Sudbury roster. We played great on all three sides of the ball including a touchdown by Michael Reid on kickoff return to open the second half. A few guys really stepped up for us and had themselves a game Justin Cond, Brandon Grigg, and Michael Reid who may have had the best game of his Steelers career having led the team in almost every stat category. Michael Reid is a DAWG!”
“Our biggest key for Tri-City will be getting numbers at practice and getting numbers on the road. We need to get live reps to work out adjustments in our defensive and offensive philosophies and prep for Tri-City’s players. They’re a very talented team so we need a great week of practice and enough depth that we can keep our guys fresh and playing at 100% for four quarters
The Steelers next opponents will be back on the road in Guelph, Ontario for a 7:00 p.m kickoff against the Tri City Outlaws on Saturday, June 15th.
