Eagles blast Blazers at brightest Bubba Bowl ever

Oct 25, 2012

Photo: The “36” on the scoreboard for Sydenham’s Senior Golden Eagles marked a high point in what proved to be a great seventh installment of Sydenham’s Annual Bubba Bowl

There was much to celebrate at this year’s seventh annual Bubba Bowl, the double-header evening football match at Sydenham High School, which took place on October 18.

Bubba Bowl continues to attract thousands of fans. Not only were the two games played for the first time under the newly installed permanent field lights but it was by far the best weather the event has seen since its inception seven years ago. Bubba Bowl is named for Alex (Bubba) Turcotte, a grade 12 student and former player with the Sydenham Golden Eagles who passed away in his sleep 11 years ago. The event was the brainchild of Jim Latimer, head coach for the Junior Golden Eagles.

Both junior and senior Golden Eagles teams blasted their Bayridge opponents on Thursday night in two back-to-back games, which made this year’s Bowl definitely one to remember. From the outset when the juniors took to the field it became clear that the Golden Eagles were out to win. Both games proved to be extremely one-sided in the Eagles’ favor, likely due to the fact that Bayridge’s teams only had a few coaches out.

Sydenham’s junior assistant coach, Gord McLellan, said that the lack of coaches on the sidelines for the junior Blazers game definitely put them at a disadvantage. “We have five or six coaches compared to their two, which makes things very difficult for them. It's almost impossible to have a team of 35-40 players and to do a good job with so few coaches. We definitely had the edge."

That being said, Sydenham’s juniors did their part too. Brodie Latimer scored two touchdowns in the first quarter, with Monnier scoring the third, bringing the score to 20-0. In the second, quarterback Leslie scored a touchdown and O’Brien another, with Whitehead getting the two conversions plus a 3 point field goal bringing the score to 37-0 at the half. In the third both Latimer and Monnier scored again closing the third with a huge lead. In the last quarter O' Brien scored again but Bayridge made one final drive near the game’s end with Crozier scoring a touchdown and Barrett kicking the convert for another point, bringing the final score to 52-7 for the Golden Eagles.

Sydenham’s seniors’ game followed pretty much the same pattern, with Babcock scoring the first touchdown in the first quarter and with Pat Vanderholst following with two more in the first half. Dearborne scored the last touchdown in the first half, bringing the score to 29-0 at the end of the second quarter. It was during the third quarter and following Aubertin’s touchdown, when the seniors were leading by 36, that Sydenham’s coaches made the decision to freeze their points on the scoreboard at 36 in memory of Alex Turcotte, who wore the number 36 when he played for the Golden Eagles. The Eagles continued to blast the Blazers right up until the end when Pennock scored the final touchdown of the game, which left the Blazers licking their wounds with a final score of 57-0. Sydenham’s seniors are now tied for second place with five wins and one loss. They will play away at Holy Cross today, Thurs. Oct. 25 at 2pm. The Juniors, who have 3 wins and 2 losses, will also play at Holy Cross later in the afternoon at 3:45pm.