By Maria Michaux
The St. Joseph Jaguars made their first trip to the OFSAA Bowl Series in the 21-year history of the football program last season, and now they’ll be headed back, intent on doing some damage at the provincial level.
The Jaguars earned their second consecutive Ottawa high school city championship on Tuesday afternoon at Carleton University’s TAAG Park with a convincing 16-2 victory over the St. Mark Lions to complete a perfect 8-0 campaign in town.
“We’ve got a great group from the top down. The kids are dedicated. We have everyone at practice every day,” underlined St. Joseph head coach Blaine Scatcherd. “It takes a village to build what we’ve built, and I’m really proud of our program first and foremost. Football is thriving at our school for a reason. I’m just proud of what we’ve established here.”
They say defence wins championships, and the Jaguars proved the expression true in this year’s playoffs. They took down the St. Peter Knights 30-6 in the semi-finals and then effectively pitched a shutout in the championship game.
St. Joseph gave up a safety in the final minute to concede its shutout but safely preserve a comfortable championship victory. The reigning champs gave the Lions no room to play all day, shutting them down time after time, whether it was with a sack or multiple interceptions.
Jaguars runningback Griffin Kay made a big impact throughout the contest, dodging Lions defenders and fighting for every yard. He scored a touchdown on St. Joseph’s first offensive possession and gave his team all the points it would need.
“I just worked on getting my head down and knew there were things I had to do,” Kay signalled. “All this work is finally paying off. Getting a touchdown and going to the playoffs, it was a lot of fun. It was awesome.”
Subbing in for a snap from the 10-yard line, Carter Surowiec ran a quarterback draw into the end zone for the Jaguars’ other touchdown of the game in the third quarter. Surowiec added two more points on punt singles, and Liana Langiano converted both extra points.
The Jaguars showed they were the class of the local high school league this season, having won each of their five games leading into the city final by 24 points or more. St Joseph’s closest contest of the year was a season-opening 20-19 victory over St. Mark, but the Jaguars won a later meeting 38-13 to enter the championship game as the clear favourites.
St. Joseph was powered by a good number of senior players who returned from last year’s championship season, led by starting quarterback Ashton St-Germain.
“The experience and leadership you get from a group of guys who know what it takes to get where you want to go, that’s where it really pays off,” Scatcherd indicated.
St-Germain treasured the opportunity to earn a second city title and a trip to the provincial bowl series in his senior season.
“It’s super, super special. I’ve been working at it since Grade 9, and we’re looking to continue these championship wins into OFSAA,” highlighted St-Germain, who has his eyes on playing U Sports football next fall.
“We start filming tomorrow, getting right back into it with a couple of practices before we leave on Sunday,” he added. “We’re going to see what we can improve on, and we’ll be locked in and ready to go.”
In their first appearance at OFSAA last year, the Jaguars lost 27-7 to Kingston’s Frontenac Secondary in the National Capital Bowl. They’ll again be headed to Windsor this year, where they’ll meet Peel association champion St. Roch Catholic in the Central Bowl on Monday, Nov. 25 at 1 p.m.
“Now we have some unfinished business,” Scatcherd announced. “We got St. Roch out of Brampton and that’s going to be a challenge, but I think we have a group now that’s been there, we’ve had our taste, and now we want to go and finish the job.”
Local schools set for OFSAA girls’ basketball & boys’ volleyball
There are eight more Ottawa teams set to compete at OFSAA provincial championships for girls’ basketball and boys’ volleyball from tomorrow through Saturday.
The Osgoode Panthers will be back to defend their OFSAA girls’ basketball title when they compete in the ‘A’ championships for the province’s smallest schools near Kitchener.
Home to an Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association program, the Louis-Riel Rebelles showed their high school-level athletes can be a force too, with the ‘AA’ city champs ready to take the floor at their OFSAA event in North Bay.
Coached by retired principal Bill Arden, who stayed on to see his former school win its first top-tier girls’ basketball city title this season, the South Carleton Storm are now headed to the ‘AAA’ championships in Brampton.
Thanks to podium performances from Béatrice-Desloges (‘AA’ silver) and Franco-Cité (‘AAA’ bronze), Ottawa earned additional entries in two of the three boys’ volleyball provincials.
The Franco-Cité Faucons are the top-seeded team in the ‘AAA’ tournament for the province’s biggest schools, while West Carleton will join them in Kingston. The #2-seeded Louis-Riel Rebelles and the Samuel-Genest Laser are headed to the ‘AA’ championships in St. Catherines, and Notre Dame will play at the OFSAA ‘A’ finals in Chatham.