~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~
By Charlie Pinkerton
In both 2014 and 2015, the St. Matthew Tigers football team lost in the first round of the Tier 2 national capital high school league playoffs.
In 2016, they entered the Tier 1 division, dethroned the perennial powerhouse St. Peter Knights with a 42-0 trouncing in the city final, and then went on to win their school’s first-ever OFSAA bowl game with a 28-7 win over Toronto’s Michael Power/St Joseph Trojans.
“This season was a blessing because a lot of people doubted what we could do,” says Jean Guillaume, in his second year coaching the Tigers. “The kids were the only ones who believed in us.”
In the OFSAA Metro Bowl on Nov. 28 in Hamilton, St. Matthew gave up the first score of the game, but that was about all.
Brayden Casimiro got one back for the Tigers, returning an interception 12 yards for a St. Matt’s touchdown near the end of the first quarter.
“We knew then that everything was on a roll,” highlights Guillaume, whose team won its title a day after the Ottawa Redblacks won the Grey Cup.
The Tiger defence controlled the game from then on out. The victors allowed only 39 yards of total offence and forced seven Trojans turnovers.
Grade 11 student Kian Williams, who was named player-of-the-game, had 3 interceptions for St. Matt’s to go alongside 89 rushing yards and a trio of rushing touchdowns on the other side of the ball.
Guillaume says sticking to what the team did best all year – playing strong defence and running the ball well – was the simple key for the Tigers to control the game.
“We knew we were going to be able to beat them from the get-go, because physically, it was obvious,” signals the former Université de Montréal Carabins safety.
St. Matt’s didn’t harness that physicality until partway through the season. Guillaume used old-school high school recruiting tricks, and the help of his players, to assemble his team’s offensive line, which turned into the Tigers best unit this season, he says.
“After the first game, we were missing something. It was the O-line,” Guillaume recounts. “So I told the players to walk around school and find the big boys.”
What resulted was a young – but talented – group in the middle for the Tigers. Alex Ross and Emmanuel Cawup joined the squad following Guillaume’s search, and the pair would anchor the team’s offensive tackle spots throughout the season.
Cawup formerly played basketball under Guillaume, while Ross is an elite-level hockey player for his age, and was invited to join Team Ontario following the OFSAA victory.
Josh Mainville, a Grade 9 who started for the team at centre, was another surprise standout for the Tigers.
The team expects to lose more of its players to graduation this year than it did last year, but with their offensive line of the future set and the core of depth they’ve built under Guillaume, the head coach has nothing but high hopes for next season and beyond.