Steelhawks, Wolverines clash as high school football regular season winds down

With the league semi-finals two weeks away, the fine-tuning continues in the senior high school football loop.With o    

With the standings slowly taking shape, the Superior Heights Steelhawks picked up a narrow 21-14 win over the White Pines Wolverines on Thursday night at Superior Heights in senior action.

For the Steelhawks, the win comes after the Steelhawks dropped games to Korah in week three and St. Mary’s in week four.

Superior Heights coach Matt Desando called Thursday’s victory over White Pines “a back-and-forth battle.”

“We did some things really well and then there’s things we need to improve on,” Desando added. “We’ll get back at practice and improve on those things.”

Desando added that “seeing big, positive plays is encouraging.”

“We have to keep that rolling,” the Steelhawks coach also said.

Desando was also happy with the defence in the victory.

“That unit of our team has been getting better every week,” Desando said. “Offence has been up and down. We’ve had our struggles and we’ve had our good days, but that unit has been getting better every week.”

“We’ll put those guys out there and let them battle because we’ve got some players there and they went out and made some plays,” Desando also said.

The Wolverines got on the board with the first touchdown of the game, but a pair of Steelhawks touchdowns in the second quarter put White Pines in a hole they couldn’t completely get out of.

“We played about three quarters of the game,” said White Pines coach Will Basawa. “In the second half, we showed an intense amount of perseverance. We had some guys in there who really didn’t have a lot of playing time stepping up and playing some key roles.”

With the senior program returning to the field this season, Basawa said there’s been some progress through the five games played thus far this season.

“You can see it,” Basawa said. “We competed with Korah for a quarter. We were there with the number two team in Ontario. It says something about the character of our school and how it’s starting to change.”

After a scoreless opening quarter, White Pines opened the scoring as Garrin Pine hit Nashoba Moore for an eight-yard touchdown.  The convert by Ethan McCorkell made it 7-0.

Superior Heights knotted the game when Kaelen Cuglietta ran the ball in for a 31-yard touchdown. The convert by Chase Meyer tied the game at seven.

Ty Rushon gave Superior Heights the lead as he scored on a 16-yard touchdown run. The convert by Meyer made it 14-7 Steelhawks.

Superior Heights quarterback Daikaden Gauthier extended the lead further thanks to an 11-yard touchdown run with the convert by Meyer, sending the game into the half with the Steelhawks leading 21-7.

Midway through the fourth quarter, White Pines closed the gap when Pine hit Arthur Vincent for a 28-yard touchdown pass. With the convert from McCorkell, White Pines pulled to within seven.

Rushon ran the ball for 138 yards on 11 carries for Superior Heights while Gauthier had 72 on 11 carries as well.

Gavin Nye had a big day defensively for the Steelhawks with 9.5 tackles and a sack.

Keenan Boissoneau ran the ball for 93 yards on 20 carries for the Wolverines in the game. Rowan Wyslocky had four catches for 71 receiving yards as well.

Pine threw for 180 yards for White Pines, completing 12 of 27 pass attempts.

Defensively for White Pines, Nicolas Loutit had six tackles while Moore had five.

The Steelhawks move to 2-3 with the victory while White Pines falls to 0-5.

In Thursday’s junior game, Superior Heights picked up a 32-22 victory.

Superior Heights opened the scoring just under five minutes into the opening quarter as Ben Trevisanut ran the ball in from two yards out to give the Steelhawks a 6-0 lead.

White Pines conceded a safety 3:39 into the second quarter, giving Superior Heights an 8-0 lead.

The Wolverines got the game back on even terms thanks to a 32-yard touchdown run by D.J. Pine and subsequent two-point convert from Damon Belanger, tying the game at eight.

Superior Heights retook the lead later in the quarter when Maxx Clement ran the ball in from five yard out to make it 14-8.

The Steelhawks extended the lead thanks to a seven-yard touchdown run from Trevisanut, giving Superior Heights a 20-8 lead heading into the half.

White Pines pulled to within six after Pine caught a four-yard touchdown pass from Markeese Strawbridge late in the third quarter.

Drew Hankinson extended the Superior Heights lead to 26-14 with a one-yard touchdown run to end the third quarter.

Blaine Polson picked up a 22-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to make it a 32-14 game before Adam Hassan scored on a 62-yard touchdown run. Pine then added a two-point convert to cap off the scoring.

Trevisanut had 165 yards rushing on 22 carries for Superior Heights while Clement had 121 on 14 carries.

Marcus Gould had five tackles defensively for the Steelhawks while Trevisanut had 4.5.

Pine had 156 yards rushing on 22 carries for White Pines while Hassan had 98 on eight carries.

J.D. Boyer had nine tackles while Anthony Hunt had seven tackles for White Pines.

Superior Heights moves to 2-3 with the win while White Pines is 0-5.

Next week, Superior Heights wraps up the regular season on Friday night against Korah while White Pines faces St. Mary’s on Thursday night.

This week’s action continues on Friday night as St. Mary’s takes on Korah.

Kickoff for the junior games is 4:45 p.m. with the senior games to follow at 7:30 p.m. All games are at Superior Heights.