One week after winning a city title in what was their toughest test of the season, the Korah Colts junior football team got back to fundamentals and with that, won their third consecutive Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) title in the process.
The Colts took a 34-7 lead by the half and proceeded to beat the St. Charles Cardinals of Sudbury 47-20 to win the title on Saturday afternoon at Superior Heights.
The NOSSA win came one week after a narrow 18-15 win over Superior Heights in the city final
“We preached fundamentals all week,” said Colts Coach Jamie Antonello. “I wasn’t happy because we took a lot of penalties in the first half and put ourselves in a hole and had a few too many turnovers but we got back to basics and that really helped us.”
“At the start of the second half, our defence came out firing and we had two fumble recoveries touchdowns that blew it wide open,” Antonello added. “From that point on, I was really happy.”
On their opening drive, which lasted nearly half of the opening quarter, the Colts would get on the board as Michael Nicoletta ran the ball in from 10 yards out with Korah looking at a fourth down situation. The convert by Nathan Lajunen would make it 7-0 early.
The Colts would increase the lead with 1:23 to go in the quarter as Gabe Martynuck ran the ball in from 51 yards out. Lajunen would convert the major to make the score 14-0.
Nicoletta would get his second major of the game 1:04 into the second quarter on a four-yard run. A Lajunen convert made it 21-0 Colts.
St. Charles got on the board as Lennox Fitchett recovered a fumble and ran it 26 yards for a touchdown. A convert by Aidan Teeter would make it 21-7.
Martynuck would run the ball in from 51 yards out to increase the Colts lead further. A convert by Lajunen made it 28-7 in the late stages of the opening half.
With 39.7 seconds to go in the half, Ryan Barnes would run the ball in from 12 yards out to make the scored 34-7.
The Colts would make it 40-7 as Ryan Duncan recovered a fumble and returned it 64 yards for a touchdown early in the third quarter.
Nicoletta would recover a fumble for the Colts and return it 40 yards for a touchdown on St. Charles’ next possession. Lajunen would kick the convert and increase the score to 47-7.
Keynan-Roo Astgen-Simon would run the ball in from 30 yards out for St. Charles. That and a convert by Peters would make the score 47-14 going into the fourth quarter.
Ethan Teeter would run the ball 66 yards for a St. Charles touchdown with just under five minutes to go in the contest, making the score 47-20.
Nicoletta ran the ball for 133 yards on 12 carries for Korah. Martynuck had ran for 85 yards on seven carries.
Defensively for the Colts, Nicoletta and Duncan had three tackles each to go along with their fumble recovery touchdowns. Barnes also had three tackles for the Colts.
Offensively for St. Charles, Teeter had 153 yards rushing on 14 carries.
Brett Bond had eight tackles for St. Charles while Fitchett had five tackles and an assist. Keegan Esquimaux-Osawamick had five tackles.