Photo Credit: Freeze Frame Photos
With a 17 – 0 shutout win over the Sudbury Spartans on July 13th at Rocky DiPietro Field in Sault Ste Marie, the second place Sault Steelers hit the field in Sault Ste Marie on Saturday, July 20th looking to secure first place with a OP5FL win over the visiting first place Tri City Outlaws.
At 7:18 of the opening quarter, Steeler quarterback Ryan Yost fires a ten yard to Brock Hoover to rush for a Sault 25 yard touchdown carry to give the hosts a 7 – 0 after a Brady Smith extra point. Steve Hiiemma runs for the Steelers second major of the final regular season game at 3:05 of the first to bring the Sault’s lead to 14 – 0 after Smith finding the uprights for the extra point. Scoring his second touchdown of the contest for the Sault, Hiiemma runs four yards for the Steelers to give the Sault s a 21 – 0 lead after Smith kicks the extra point at 6:21 of the second. Tri City’s Archelaus Jack catches a 31 yard pass from Outlaw quarterback Dominic Florentino in the Steeler endzone to close the gap to 21 – 7 after a Sean Harper extra point with 39.7 seconds remaining in the half.
With 22.3 seconds left in the opening half, Michael Reid evaded three Outlaw tackles to run 55 yards for Sault’s third major into Tri City’s endzone to send the Steelers into half up 28 – 7 after a Smith extra point. With 1:28 remaining in the third quarter, Hoover rushed seven yards for the Sault to increase the lead to 34 – 7. With his third major of the game, Hoover carries the ball for a 43 yard rush to increase the Steelers lead to 41 – 7 after a Smith extra point at 13:26 of the final quarter. With 4:24 left in the final regular season game of the 2024 OP5FL season, Darian Belkosky dives on a Outlaw fumble in Tri City’s endzone to recover a Steeler touchdown to give the Sault a 48 – 7 win over the Outlaws with a Brady Smith extra point.
Steeler Jonathan Bujold told Saultsports that “I’m so thankful that our players have bought into the system we’ve committed to this season. This is a special group and I’m very happy for them. We’ve said it a million times, we’re a different beast at home. And now we get to stay home for the remainder of the season. We challenged our guys to defend home turf and get ourselves in the driver’s seat. The challenge starts now. Teams will make an effort to travel right now though, they know they need to bring the house to beat us at home. I expect a full Sudbury roster. They can’t be underestimated. There is no such thing as an easy win in this league. The only thing we earned tonight is the opportunity to be at home, sleep in our own beds, and defend Rocky for the second portion of the season.”
“It was the best team effort we had all season. Offensively, we executed our blocking assignments which let multiple of our players eat today. On defense we executed our game plan the best we have all season- we knew they had some great players and our entire defense stepped up to make plays. We know Sudbury’s going to be a tough and gritty football team, so we need a great week of practice to iron out the small details so we’re giving Sudbury our best look”, added Steeler Michael Reid.
Visit Freeze Frame Photos by Bob Davies photo gallery of the Sault Steelers versus Tri City Outlaws.
With the 48 – 7 win, the Steelers head into the postseason in first place for the first time since 2013. The Sault will now host the Sudbury Spartans on Saturday, July 27th at Rock DiPietro Field in a 7:30 p.m kickoff.
