Colts run to the city title

They hadn’t played in 21 days and their last game was a loss for the team they faced in a city championship.

The Korah Colts ran the ball 450 yards en route to a 37-15 win over the St. Mary’s Knights Friday night in Superior Heights, with their run game intermittently floored at their previous meeting to win the title of the Win Senior High School Football City.

The previous meeting was a 15-14 loss to the Knights on October 7th.

“We had a hard time running the ball against them the last time we played them,” said Colts coach Tom Annett. “They did a few different things against us but if you give our staff some time to work on it and our players to replicate that, we were lucky to have the double bye. We’ve found a few ways to exploit what they’re doing. We ran very hard with the ball.”

Annett called the extra time between games “strange”.

“Our employees did a really good job,” added Annett. “We stepped up the first week, then backed off the second week and then stepped up.”

Annett added that much of their preparation was aimed at beating St. Mary’s against Superior Heights in last week’s semi-final game.

“We defended her passing game well,” said Annett. “They have so many athletes and they throw so much that they’re going to get degrees, but overall we did a good job, bending a little but not breaking.”

Annett also said that the loss to St Mary’s “kind of ate our fifth-year players”.

For the Knights, coach Jim Monico said he felt the Colts were the better team in the game.

“I said when I come in, whoever plays better wins and tonight they were the better team,” said Monico. “We just couldn’t get off the field on defense, and when we were on offense we executed selectively but just not consistently.”

After falling behind in the first quarter, the Knights came on the board midway through the second quarter, but a barrage of attacks from the Colts after the Knights took the lead was crucial.

“We go up 7-6 and then they hit again and we’re like ‘Ok, 13-7 at halftime isn’t bad’ and then they have another and at the end they get a bad punt and they come back and get it a field goal and it’s 23-7 at halftime,” said Monica. “We moved the ball a bit early in the second half but just couldn’t get it in. The defense didn’t come off the field and we couldn’t stay on the field consistently, that’s what it boils down to,” added Monico.

Korah opened the scoring when Jesse Burella ran the ball in from 33 yards to make it 6-0 for Colts midway through the first quarter.

Jaiden Trudeau caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Matti Tucker midway through the second quarter to put St. Mary’s on the board. With Daniel Bumbaco converting, the Knights took a 7-6 lead.

A little over three minutes from time in the second quarter, Korah drove to the St. Mary’s 2-yard line after a 51-yard pass from Ronan Provenzano to Gabe Byron.

In the next game, Burella ran the ball in for a touchdown. With the conversion of Koski, the Colts took the lead by a 13-7 lead.

In the last minute of halftime, Provenzano ran the ball into the goal from 15 yards. Koski’s convert made it 20-7 Korah.

Koski hit a 16-yard field goal to send the game into halftime with Korah leading 23-7.

Barely 90 seconds into the fourth quarter, Kaylob Thibodeau ran the ball in from 13 yards. With Koski’s conversion, Korah pulled into the lead with a 30-7 lead.

Thibodeau picked up his second major of the night on a four-yard run with 2:17 to go. Koski’s convert made it 37-7.

A 62-yard pass play from Tucker to Bumbaco put the ball at Korah’s 5-yard line.

Bumbaco went on to run the ball in for a touchdown on the next play. The two-point converter executed by Tucker made it 37-15.

Burella ended the day with 158 yards on Korah with 20 carries while Thibodeau had 169 on 15 carries.

Defensively for the Colts, Lucas Malcolm had six tackles. Logan McGregor added four tackles and an interception.

Tucker thew for 244 yards for the Knights and completed 17 of 33 passing attempts in the game.

Bumbaco caught four passes for St. Mary’s for 91 yards in the game.

Defensively for St. Mary’s, Nick Carter had 7.5 tackles while Brandon Vecchio had 6.5 and Seamus Parlow had six.

The Colts will play a Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) semifinals on November 5 on the road against the North Bay city champions. The winner of that match will then host the Sudbury Champion for NOSSA the following week.