Hats off to Sydenham Golden Eagles

Nov 25, 2010

Photo: Sydenham's Golden Eagles

Although going to print on a Tuesday leaves us here at the News hanging regarding the outcome of the Eagles’ final game at the National Capital Bowl, which was played in Toronto at the Rogers Centre yesterday, Wed. Nov. 24 against Peterborough's Crestwood Mustangs, I thought I might brief fans regarding the last nail-biter of a game that got them there.

The Golden Eagles had to be the underdogs going into Saturday’s game. The St. Peter’s Knights were the defending champions; Sydenham’s starting quarterback Steve Knapton was out for the season; they were playing their third game in a week; and the game was being played in Ottawa, the Knights’ home town.

The Golden Eagles’ grade 11 quarterback Brett Irwin, who took over from Knapton, stayed calm and cool, not causing any turnovers in the game and connecting with Ben Fisher for a long touchdown pass that put Sydenham up 8-0 at half time.

The Knights came on in the second half, scoring a single early on, and with four minutes left they finally scored a touchdown to bring the score back to 8-7. The turning point in the game came when Sydenham’s Hayden Peters, a kicker himself, partially blocked the St. Peter’s conversion kick attempt, forcing it to bounce off the crossbar and out, keeping the score at 8-7.

Sydenham then recovered the onside kick. A few plays later Brett Irwin handed the ball off the running back Josh Thompson, who reared back and threw a touchdown pass to Ollie Moyse. The game was put completely out of reach when Kieran Doyle intercepted a St. Peter’s pass and returned it for another touchdown, bringing the final score to 21-7.

Sydenham’s coach Mike Love said that Brett Irwin deserves a lot of credit for the win. “Brett played a great game even with a strong wind blowing constantly on the field,” Love said. “Overall it was a pretty hard fought game. The Knights are physically a very big team and their running back played a great game gaining 200 yards.”

In the run up to Wednesday’s game Mike Love suggested the team will just try to continue to ride the wave that has seen them win eight games in a row after stumbling with losses in their first two games at the beginning of the season.

“We've played five games in 15 days and so have not had a lot of time to regroup. Our plan is to go in just doing what we've been doing. We've had a really great season and the guys have played better every single week and have come a long way. If we do end up taking the cup on Wednesday, all I know is that it will be a pretty fun bus ride home.”

(P.S. If you don’t know what happened in Toronto yesterday, just ask any teenager or any parent of a teenager living south of Parham)