Sabercats end season with win

The Soo Sabercats ended the 2007 Ontario Varsity Football League season on a solid note.

The Sabercats defeated the Cambridge Lions 26-6 on Saturday in their final regular season game. With a 3-4-1 record, the Sabercats failed to qualify for the OVFL playoffs.

“I thought we progressed quite a bit in a lot of areas,” said Sabercats coach Cale Krezek. “We did have some problems but we were able to fight through it, which was the difference. Before we weren’t doing that and we were able to fight through it the last few games.”

Peter McGonagal paced the Sabercats offensively with 89 yards rushing on 16 carries. McGonagal scored one of three Sabercats touchdowns in the win. Jonathan Widgett, and Corey Wensley scored the others. The rest of the Sabercats offense came of a late safety in the third quarter and a Dan Swystun field goal in the final minute of the frame. Jake Cooper scored a touchdown for the Lions though the extra point was missed.

Krezek noted that he was pleased with the strides his team made defensively late in the year.

“Defensively, that’s probably where I saw the biggest difference,” said Krezek. “Guys maybe understood the defense a little better and guys weren’t getting broken coverages which were really hurting us. The other thing was that we were giving the defence a short field all the time. We did a better job of not putting our defence in that type of situation.”

Krezek is optimistic heading into the off-season and into the 2008 season. He is pleased with the returning core of players though which players return from university and who wants to return to the team next year will be the key.

“We’re not losing a lot of guys,” Krezek said. “It’s going to really depend on our guys going to university and coming back. It’s probably going to depend on how much they play in their programs. In this league your 19-year-olds are the ones that win you games. They have to be the guys that carry you. I think we’re better all around at this time compared to last year positionally. It’s really going to depend on who comes back.”