St. Mary's pound St. Basil for junior city football title

The St. Mary's Knights used a solid defense and a consistent offense to capture the High School Football League Junior Division City Championship. The Knight's held the St.

The St. Mary's Knights used a solid defense and a consistent offense to capture the High School Football League Junior Division City Championship.

The Knight's held the St. Basil offense off the scoreboard until the game's final play and cruised to a 36-7 win at Rocky DiPietro Field on Saturday afternoon.

Jordan Casola and Andrew Baziuk scored two touchdowns each to pace the Knight's attack.

After a scoreless opening quarter, St. Mary's took control midway through the second quarter as Casola hauled in a six yard pass from quarterback Jon Mullin.

Casola would grab an 11 yard pass from Mullin for a touchdown with two seconds remaining in the half to put the Knights ahead 14-0.

In the second half, Mullin scored on a quarterback keep from one yard out and Baziuk ran for touchdowns of three and 70 yards. Jason Dias kicked two converts while Casola and Mark DeVuono each caught a two-point conversion.

Kyle Hoffman scored for St. Basil on a 20 yard run to close the game. Nicholas Giordano kicked the convert.

Baziuk, the junior division's most valuable player this season, led the Knights rushing attack with 88 yards on only five touches.

Mullin ran for 68 yards on 11 carries while DeVuono added a run of 52 yards and Jeff Greco gained 36 yards on six attempts.

Mullin completed six of 10 pass attempts for 85 yards. DeVuono caught three balls for 62 yards and Casola made three receptions for 23 yards.

Defensively for the Knights, Brad Symboluk made nine tackles while Dan Perri and DeVuono made five each.

For the Saints, Kyle Hoffman led the offense with 50 yards rushing on 14 carries. Quarterback Matt Hoffman completed five of eight passes for 33 yards and Brad Boyer hit Matt Hoffman for a 31 yard pass.

Luke Ruicci led the St. Basil defense with 6.5 tackles while Josh MacFarlane added six and Kyle Scali four.

The game marked the end of the junior season as the junior division does not participate in a Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) championship.