UPDATE: Steelers fall to Longhorns

Forced into several turnovers by a stifling defense, the Sault Steelers season ended on Saturday as the Oakville Longhorns powered their way to another championship. Oakville won their 11th consecutive Northern Football Conference championship this afternoon with a 51-0 win over the Steelers at Bronte Athletic Field in Oakville. While as powerful as the Longhorns are, a disappointed Steelers head coach Barry Rushon felt that his team didn't play the type of game that led them to a perfect 8-0 regular season and a pair of playoff victories. "We played poorly today," said Rushon. "All aspects of our game seemed to shut down there for 15 minutes in the first quarter and a good part of the second quarter and by that time we had been smashed in the mouth and couldn't recover. "We only managed six first downs and we threw six interceptions. We had a punt returned for a touchdown on us and defensively we had them third and long and we let them off the hook, so we made a lot of errors. It was not our typical game." Oakville led 10-0 after the first quarter as Dana Segin kicked a 12 yard field goal and veteran quarterback Mark Demerling connected with receiver Colin Grant for a 37 yard touchdown. The Longhorns blew open the game with a 34 point second quarter to take a 44-0 lead into the half. In the quarter, running back Derwin Phillips ran for three touchdowns and Demerling tossed a pair of touchdowns to Rick Rodrigues and Theon James. The only scoring of the second half came on a Ryan Skeete six yard touchdown run. Offensively, the Steelers managed only 80 yards net offense compared to 354 yards for Oakville. Josh Gauthier led the Steelers rushers with 60 yards on seven carries. Quarterback Seth Cond completed two of seven passes, both to receiver Kyle Lansdell, for eight yard while Travis McLean went zero for five passing. Both combined for five interceptions while the Steelers also lost a pair of fumbles. Defensively, Jason Brunetti led the Steelers with five tackles while Wade Kraft and John Maione chipped in with three each. For Oakville, Demerling completed nine of 13 passes while Sault native Steve Nott completed five of nine passes against his former club. The win marked the eighth shutout in 10 games for the Longhorns this season. Only Oshawa with 21 and Tri-City with seven managed to score points on Oakville during games in the regular season. "(Oakville) are just an unbelievable team," said Steelers president Don McBain. "We got down big by the middle of the second quarter and had a lot of turnovers after that trying to get back into the game. It's tough to come back on a team like that, they are very, very good." Phillips was named the game's offensive most valuable player while veteran Oakville linebacker Wayne Sliwinski was presented with the defensive MVP award. The Longhorns will continue to practice as the team has advanced into the Canadian Major Football League Canadian Championship September 20 in Oshawa against the champion of the Alberta Football League. Since the game was established in 2000, the Longhorns have won all three national championships. *** OVFL CHAMPIONSHIP: The championship games in the Ontario Varsity Football League were also played on Saturday at University Stadium in Waterloo. The Toronto Thunder edged the Steel City Ironmen 27-25 for the OVFL championship. In the junior OVFL final, the Ottawa Myers Riders hammered the London Falcons 51-24. .