Varsity Sabercats winning streak continues

In a battle for positioning in the Ontario Football Conference’s West Division, the Sault Sabercats varsity team continues to roll. 

After starting the regular season 1-2, the Sabercats have reeled off four-straight wins, including a 33-20 decision over the Oakville Titans on Saturday afternoon at Superior Heights.

The game was a battle between a pair of 4-2 teams and the Sabercats move into second in the West Division thanks to the victory.

Sabercats Coach Matt Premo spoke post game about the locals ability to win the turnover battle and how important it was in the victory.

“Our defence was great,” Premo said. “That’s huge. That’s one of the things we track in-game is winning the turnover battle and we definitely did that today. It was one of the big reasons why we were successful.”

Some important plays on both sides of the ball had an impact on the outcome as well, but Premo would also say that the Sabercats are looking to be more consistent on the offensive side of the ball.

“We made a lot of big plays on defence with the turnovers and on offence we had some big plays as well,” Premo said. “We would like to be a little more consistent on offence. We always talk about limiting our two-and-outs. 

After being stopped on their opening drive, Jacob Fecteau recovered an Oakville fumble on the Titans 37. Jordan Robinson-Wright would proceed to cap off the Sabercats subsequent drive with a six-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.

Robinson-Wright would hit Taylor Holub for a 32-yard touchdown pass midway through the second quarter to make it 14-0.

The Sabercats would recover a fumbled punt deep in Oakville territory later in the quarter. On the Sabercats first drive following the play, Elisha Ishimwe would punch the ball in from 11 yards out to give the Sabercats a 21-0 lead. 

Oakville’s Liam Smith would kick a 24-yard field goal late in the quarter to get the Titans on the board.

Kaden Gilbert would then hit Noah Holder on a 52-yard pass-and-run to cut the Sabercats lead further, making it 21-10 with 1:36 to go in the half.

Late in the third quarter, Jackson Zack-Coneybeare picked off an Oakville pass and brought the ball to the Titans 23. On the next play, Robinson-Wright hit Cooper Laframboise for a touchdown pass to make it 27-10.

The Sabercats would concede a safety early in the fourth quarter to make it 27-12.

Joseph Rosso picked off an Oakville pass on the Titans next play from scrimmage and run it back into the endzone to make it 33-12.

On an 11-yard run, Ayden Amestoy scored on an 11-yard run for Oakville with just over a minute left. Nicolas Huiskamp would add a two-point convert to make it 33-20.

Calling the touchdown by Ishimwe in the second quarter a key play in the win, Premo spoke of the Sabercats ability to bounce back after Oakville crept back into the game late in the opening half.

“We let our foot off the gas and we talked about it at halftime that we can’t ease up,” Premo said. “We preached that we needed to start the second half fast and we did.”

Mitchell Della Vedova ran the ball for 57 yards on 14 carries.

Robinson-Wright finished the day with 137 yards passing on 10 completions and a touchdown pass to go along with his rushing touchdown. Holub finished the day with three catches for 46 yards for the Sabercats

Matteo Thomas-Dale had 66 yards receiving on five catches while Holder had 69 yards receiving and a touchdown on three catches. Amestoy had 14 yards rushing on five carries for Oakville

Defensively for the Sabercats, Fecteau had four solo tackles and an assisted tackle in addition to his fumble recovery.

Caleb Field had six tackles, two assisted tackles and a sack for Oakville defensively.

The Sabercats are scheduled to return to action on July 21 when they wrap up regular season action at home against the North Halton Crimson Tide.

The Sabercats junior varsity team was also scheduled to face Oakville on Saturday but the Titans JV squad, out of playoff contention

Also out of playoff contention at the JV level, North Halton is considering forfeiting next week’s regular season finale. Should that happen, the JV Sabercats would finish the regular season with a 7-1 record.