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Football Notebook: Sabercats, Steelers on road (update)

The Ontario Varsity Football League season came to a close on Saturday night for the Sault Sabercats.

The Ontario Varsity Football League season came to a close on Saturday night for the Sault Sabercats.

A week after dropping a 44-25 decision to the Cambridge Lions, giving the Lions home field advantage in the OVFL playoffs, the Sabercats dropped a 48-14 decision in Cambridge Saturday in the opening round of the playoffs.

The Sabercats fell behind 17-0 in the opening half and trailed 24-14 before Cambridge broke the game open in the second half with 24 unanswered points

James White and Jeff Auger caught touchdown passes from Evan Bodnar to complete the Sabercats scoring.

Bodnar finished the day with 130 yards passing on nine completions and also threw an interception. Hunter Holub also saw action at quarterback early in the contest, completing seven of 16 passes for 45 yards and three interceptions.

White and Auger were the Sabercats top two receivers with White catching five passes for 84 yards and Auger adding four catches for 57 yards.

Defensively, Brett Johnston had six solo tackles for the Sabercats.

Cambridge quarterback Mack Christopher, who ran for three touchdowns in the Lions regular season win over the Sabercats a week earlier, ran for a pair of touchdowns and threw a pair of touchdown passes in Saturday’s victory.

In the Northern Football Conference, the Sault Steelers clinched a playoff spot with a 13-12 road win Saturday evening against the Sarnia Imperials.

With the win, the Steelers clinched a playoff berth and finish seventh in the NFC standings thanks to a Toronto Raiders loss to Sudbury on Saturday night (33-28).

Alonzo Clarke returned a Sarnia punt 80-yards for a touchdown while Matt Buchan hit Todd Hicks for a 15-yard touchdown pass for the Steelers other major.

Despite the loss, the Imperials took the West Division title, and the second seed in the playoffs, with a 5-3 record.

With their seventh-place finish, the Steelers could potentially face Sarnia next weekend in the opening round of the playoffs but the NFC’s final playoff matchups will be determined by the league executive on Monday as teams are subject to meeting financial obligations prior to round one of the playoffs.


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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