Steelers defeat rivals and gain home field playoff spot

The Sault Steelers turned another dominating defensive performance into a huge victory on Saturday night at Rocky DiPietro Field.

Holding the Sudbury Spartans to just 151 yards of offense and sacking Sudbury quarterback Nick Shelswell seven times, the Steelers cruised to a 26-7 victory giving the team at least a fourth place finish in the Northern Football Conference and a home field playoff date on Saturday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.

Andrew Posteraro's first of two field goals from 18 yards out gave the Steelers an early 3-0 lead before the Spartans would score their only major on a Brandon Dougan 10 yard reception from Shelswell.

In the second quarter, Ron Kelly gave the Steelers the lead for good with a 29 yard reception from quarterback Travis McLean before Posteraro booted a 22 yard field goal.

Tim Higgins caught a 16 yard touchdown pass before Kelly scored on a 53 yard pass to conclude the scoring in the second half.

McLean ripped apart the Sudbury defense by completing 22 of 31 passes for 336 yards and three touchdowns while leading the team in rushing with 63 yards on five carries.

Kelly caught a total of five passes for 118 yards while Higgins grabbed seven balls for 100 yards and James O'Hara caught three passes for 45 yards. Jason Giosa added 34 rushing yards on four carries.

Defensively, Brandon Lewis led the team with four tackles and three sacks while Seth Robinson added 6.5 tackles. Giosa recorded four tackles and an interception, Gordie Campbell made two tackles, two sacks and a fumble recovery and Joe Oldham recorded two sacks.

The Steelers, now at 5-2, will conclude the regular season next week on the road against the Tri-City Outlaws before returning home for the first round of the playoffs.

In other games around the league, Milton beat Quinte 48-0, Oshawa nipped Oakville 18-12 and Toronto blanked Markham 39-0.

With the win, Milton clinches first place, a bye to the semi-finals on August 13th and ends Oakville's hold on the Pestolis Fourezois trophy as the NFC's first place finisher after 11 consecutive seasons. Oshawa and Oakville have also clinched home playoff games for the quarterfinals on August 6th.