If you had some plans in addition to the Sault Sabercats varsity football game on Saturday afternoon there’s a possibility you might have been a little late for them.
The good news is the Sabercats made it worthwhile with a convincing 53-12 win over the Chatham-Kent Cougars in Ontario Summer Football League action.
“Defensively, we were awesome today,” Sabercats coach Matt Premo said. “We had turnovers and held them to barely anything on offence.”
Premo added that the Sabercats ability to limit Chatham’s playmakers was a focus for the team in practice leading up to the game.
“Just keeping their playmakers in check (was important),” Premo said. “They got some points there in the second half, but that’s going to happen with good players.”
“Offensively, we were good as well,” Premo also said. “We were pretty consistent, had some big plays, and were able to open things up there in the second quarter, which is nice to see.”
The game, which took roughly 3.5 hours to complete, saw numerous penalty flags to both teams throughout, which included 15 penalties for 160 yards to the Sabercats.
“You just try to get through to the players,” Premo said of trying to avoid unnecessary penalties. “Sometimes it’s hard with teenagers to get through to them and to manage their emotions.”
Premo added that avoiding penalties will be a focus as the team prepares for its second-round playoff game next weekend at home.
The Sabercats opened the scoring with just over four minutes to go in the opening quarter when Nate Carter caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matti Tucker. Ty Koski added the extra point to give the Sabercats a 7-0 lead.
Koski hit a 17-yard field goal with 6:28 to go in the half to extend the Sabercats lead to 10-0.
On the kickoff, the Sabercats picked up a single point after Koski kicked the ball into the Cougars end zone and a penalty negated the return by Caleb Roberts.
The Sabercats extended the lead when Tucker hit Daniel Bumbaco with a pass and the latter ran the ball from near the Sabercats 30 all the way in for a 105-yard touchdown. Koski hit the extra point to make the score 18-0 Sabercats.
“(Chatham) adjusted what they were doing defensively a little bit,” Premo said of the game early prior to the major. “It took us a little while to figure out what they were doing and once we had an idea what we were seeing, we were calling the right plays and players were getting in the right positions to make some plays.”
“We saw something when we ran that play earlier and we came back to it and took advantage of it,” Premo added about the Bumbaco major.
Just over four minutes into the third quarter, Tucker hit Jaidan Trudeu with a short pass and the latter proceeded to run the ball in for a 36-yard touchdown. Koski hit the extra point to make it a 25-0 game.
With 6:59 to go in the quarter, Bumbaco caught a pass from Tucker and ran the ball in for a 39-yard touchdown. Koski hit the extra point to increase the Sabercats lead to 32-0.
With just over four minutes to go in the third quarter, Nathan Hansor caught a 31-yard pass from quarterback Owen Mallot-Bennett to get Chatham on the board, making the score 32-6.
On the ensuing kickoff, Trudeau ran the ball 115 yards for a touchdown, but the major was negated due to a flag.
Ronan Provenzano then ran the ball in from 15 yards out on the next play. With the convert from Koski, the Sabercats took a 39-6 lead.
With just under three minutes to go in the quarter, Roberts caught a 21-yard pass from Mallot-Bennett, making it a 39-12 game.
Trudeau caught a short seven-yard pass from Tucker with just under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The convert by Koski made it a 46-12 game.
Receiver Ray Rumiel capped off the scoring for the Sabercats on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Tucker with 1:47 to go in the fourth quarter.
Tucker finished the day with 442 yards passing as he completed 20 of 27 pass attempts.
Trudeau caught six passes for 114 yards while Bumbaco had 155 yards receiving on three catches.
On the ground, Provenzano had 46 yards rushing on 11 carries.
Defensively for the Sabercats. Landen Trecartin had eight tackles while Ethan Carchidi had five along with a sack and a fumble recovery.
Brandon Vecchio added five tackles as well along with an interception and Daikaden Gauthier had 3.5 tackles and a pair of interceptions for the Sabercats.
Detailed stats for Chatham were not available following the game.
In junior varsity action on Saturday, the Sabercats JV team picked up a 22-21 win over the Forest City Thunderbirds to advance.