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The Korah Colts have had a lot of success in Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) bowl games over the years and added to that on Saturday afternoon.
Korah won its third consecutive bowl game and second Northern Bowl title in a row Saturday thanks to a 35-7 win over Thunder Bay’s St. Ignatius Falcons at Superior Heights.
Prior to COVID-19 cancelling the 2020 high school football season, the Colts won the 2019 Northern Bowl after winning the National Capital Bowl in 2018.
Colts coach Tom Annett said the offensive and defensive lines turned into a difference-maker in the game.
“They had an excellent line,” Annett said. “And we pride ourselves on that and our guys stayed mentally tough and eventually wore (St. Ignatius) down a little bit.”
Annett said there was a feeling-out process early on in the game prior to the Colts running game picking up key yards in the second quarter en route to the win.
Michael Nicoletta had three touchdowns on the ground for Korah while Ryan Barnes ran for a touchdown as well.
“When we really busted it open was when we broke out an offensive set that we hadn’t run all year,” Annett said. “We had been practicing it for weeks. It’s a little bit more misdirection.”
“Once we got into that, our ball deception really caught them off guard,” Annett added. “That’s the set that really opened things up for us.”
With the game still scoreless midway through the second quarter, the Korah running game found some success.
Facing a third and one, Barnes took the snap and gained seven yards for the first down.
On the next play, Nicoletta took a direct snap for 19 yards for another first down.
The series, which saw Barnes and Nicoletta eat up yards, Barnes ran the ball in from 17 yards out for a touchdown. With the convert by Jack Tuckett, the Colts would take a 7-0 lead.
Nicoletta extended the lead later in the quarter when he ran the ball in from 27 yards out with 1:08 to go in the half. Add in the convert by Tuckett and it was 14-0 Korah heading into the half.
With 13.3 seconds to go in the half, Falcons receiver Makeer Makeer caught a 31-yard pass from quarterback Michael Danchuk to bring the ball to the Korah 10.
A pass interference call on the Colts with 3.1 seconds to go put the ball on the Korah 1-yard line but the Falcons couldn’t punch the ball in. The Falcons gave the ball to running back Tyler Robertson, who was stuffed at the goal line.
Annett called the play a defining factor in the game.
“That was a huge momentum changer,” Annett said. “That was the most important play of the game.”
When St. Ignatius stepped up to the line of scrimmage, Annett said the Colts saw Robertson lining up under centre.
“We called a timeout and after the timeout, they stuck with that,” Annett said. “We just tried to plug every gap and anticipated the sneak and that’s what it was. It just came down to a battle of will there and our guys were determined to not let him into the endzone.”
With four minutes to go in the third quarter, Nicoletta broke loose for a 47-yard touchdown run with help of a key block by Jacob Brown. With the convert on the play by Tuckett, the Colts lead moved to 21-0.
Nicoletta got his third rushing touchdown of the day in the final minute of the third quarter when he ran the ball in from 37 yards out with 20.7 seconds to go in the quarter. Tuckett’s extra point on the play made the score 28-0.
In the fourth quarter, Barnes picked up his second touchdown of the day on a 25-yard run. With the convert by Tuckett, Korah’s lead moved to 35-0.
Tyler Robertson got St. Ignatius on the board late in the game when he ran the ball in from eight yards out with just under two minutes to go in the quarter. The convert on the play made the score 35-7. The major was set up initially by a 58-yard run earlier in the series.
Robertson finished the day with 199 yards on 23 carries in the game.
In addition to his three touchdowns, Nicoletta finished the day with 182 yards rushing on 16 carries in the win for the Colts.
Barnes meanwhile ran the ball 17 times for 126 yards.
“The O-line had a lot to do with (the run game),” Annett said. “We made a few adjustments on the line with our splits on certain plays and that made a big difference. (St. Ignatius) has some really good defensive linemen. For a while we were running away from some of them, which helped us as well.”
Defensively for the Colts, Nicoletta, Nathan Keranen, and Lucas Malcolm had 5.5 tackles each.
Elijah Plastino had 3.5 tackles and an interception while Caleb Plastino had 4.5 tackles.
“We’ve been saying all year that to win in this city and to win in Ontario, you have to be able to run the ball offensively and stop the run defensively,” Annett said. “All three levels, our D-line, our linebackers, and our DB’s played excellent. Our defensive staff did a good job of bringing a game plan and our players did a phenomenal job of studying it and executing it in the game.”
Jett Sweitzer led all defensive players on St. Ignatius with 6.5 tackles. Lukas Marenic had six tackles and Nico Scavarelli had 5.5.
Joseph Colistro had five tackles for the Falcons.