Cougars Show Growl in Bantam, Varsity Wins
Bantam Chatham-Kent Cougars vs Forest City - Photo by Ian Formosa
The Bantam and Varsity Chatham-Kent Cougars showed some growl on the weekend defeating the Forest City Thunderbirds in Ontario Football Conference action.
In the varsity game, the Chatham-Kent Cougars Varsity Team moved to 3rd place in the OFC and has secured a playoff spot after beating the London Forest City Thunderbirds 47-0.
Chatham-Kent touchdowns on the ground were scored by Blayne Bechard who had a rushing TD, and Josh Wright who had a Return for TD. Kyle Ross threw for 4 touchdowns in the win to Cody St. Pierre, Lee Purnell, Josh Woodman, and Kyle Demars. Dan Fox was 6 for 6 on extra points.
Defencively, Dylan White and Jake Langstaff each had 3 sacks, Jeremiah Hamilton had 7 tackles and 1 sack, and Brenden Thompson and Graham Smyth each had 6 tackles. The Cougar Varsity team play the KW Twin City Predators on Sunday July 17th in the Cougar Alumni Classic.
The Bantam Chatham-Kent Cougars came up huge Sunday with a 33-9 victory at home against the 1st place Forest City Thunderbirds (5-1). This improves the team’s season record to 4-3, keeping the playoffs well within their grasp.
Offensively, Jermaine Caldwell had 17 carries for 87 yards with 1 TD and Ethan Smith had 10 carries for 44 yards and 1 TD. The offence excelled behind strong blocking from full back Justin Stevens and a much improved offensive line, especially Dillon Johnson who came in in the second half and played exceptional. Kelton Evans went 7 for 14 in passing, for 148 yards with two touchdown completions to Jake Anderson. Anderson caught 4 passes in total for 110 yards. Ross Krieger and Liberty Rountree also each had big catches of 25 and 20 yards respectively.
“Offensively, we took what they gave us, which was running off-tackle and passing deep down the middle,” said Offensive Co-ordinator Doug Ball. It ended up a balanced attack with 148 yards coming in the air and 158 on the ground.
Defensively, the Cougars played a near perfect game, only giving up 1 score in the opening minute of the second half. Other than the long touchdown run, the defence barely gave the Thunderbirds an inch all game. Strong performances by Spencer Pugh with a sack and a fumble recovery, and Tanner Shuain, Mark Kellet and Alex Formossa keeping everything in side the tackles, led the Cougars to victory. Inside, Zack Kaniecki, Austin Miller, Brady Pataki, Quentin Forgie, Cole Johnson, Nick Cusheri and Nicolis Melillo shut everything down for the Cougars.
The Bantam Chatham-Kent Cougars end the regular season next Sunday hosting the Stallions at 12:30pm at CKSS as part of the Inaugural Cougars Alumni Day.