Sabercats miss opportunity for upset

The Sault Sabercats were limping Saturday night after being found guilty of shooting themselves in the foot.

The Sabercats controlled the game and the top ranked Essex Ravens for three quarters until things fell apart in the fourth quarter as Essex came from behind to beat the Sabercats 33-24 in Ontario Varsity Football League action at Rocky DiPietro Field Saturday night.

Essex opened the scoring in the first quarter as Paul James scored on a three yard run for a 6-0 lead.

The Sabercats would jump ahead later in the quarter as Mark Palombi scored on a 1 yard run. Quarterback Ryan Maunu then hooked up with Ron Kelly on a 75-yard pass and run touchdown to give the Sabercats a 14-6 lead just seconds into the second quarter.

Essex closed the gap to 14-13 as Nathan Binder scored on an 8-yard touchdown reception with 11 seconds remaining in the first half.

Palombi scored his second touchdown of the game on a 25 yard run after he broke through the line on a fourth and inches play in the third quarter.

Daryl Townsend opened the fourth quarter with a one-yard touchdown run for Essex, which missed the two-point conversion to tie the score.

Dan Swystun, who kicked all three converts, completed the Sabercats scoring with a 32 yard field goal 4:44 into the quarter to give the home side a 24-19 lead.

Essex took the lead for good when James scored his second major on a one yard dive and a subsequent two point convert put them ahead 27-24. Nick Romain ended the scoring on a 31-yard run with under a minute to play.

The Sabercats dug themselves into a hole in the fourth quarter after taking 45 yards in foolish penalties, which led to Essex playing the quarter in good field position. The penalties took away all the Sabercat momentum.

Palombi was ejected in the fourth quarter after taking two objectionable conduct penalties during an exchange of words with the officials. Gary Knox was then ejected for rough play and an objectionable conduct. Both are likely to be suspended for next week.

"The bottom line was mental errors," said Sabercats head coach Ross Viotto. "Like I said to the kids after the game, the difference between being good and being champions is mental capacity.

"You can't have players, especially your captains, being thrown out of a game like that because that is not going to tolerated by the league or by this team."

The Sabercats enjoyed their best offensive game of the season, rushing for 176 yards while passing for 205 more. Palombi led the rushing attack with 100 yards on 16 carries while Frank Farkas had 57 yards on 12 carries.

Maunu completed 11 of 19 passes for 205 yards, a touchdown and one interception while Kelly had an excellent game catching nine passes for 169 yards.

"The disappointing part is that we were with the best team in this league for three quarters and then blow it like that in the fourth. These are the things that we need to work on to succeed. If we can play with these guys, we can play with anybody. Looking at the game as a whole, our guys really played hard but we didn't play 60 minutes," said Viotto.

Dan Kennedy led the Sabercats defense with 10 tackles while Ian Hazlett made eight tackles and knocked down three passes. Safety Jason Giosa recorded seven tackles and a sack.

The Sabercats home stand continues next Saturday against Cambridge at 2 p.m. at Rocky DiPietro Field.