Brantford Bisons finish weekend with 2 wins

BISONS PLAY FULL SLATE OF GAMES IN WEEK-END ACTION
The Brantford Bisons played a full slate of games this week-end as the Ontario Varsity Football League swung into action while the Ontario Minor Football League entered week 2 of their season. The Bisons had mixed results this week winning two games and losing four.

ONTARIO VARSITY FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Varsity: Essex 73 Bisons13—Head Coach Dan Padmore knew his team was in trouble as soon as they got on the bus to head out to Essex to face the Ravens. Padmore counted 25 players with the rest of the team still playing rugby and were forced to miss the game. Padmore quickly adjusted his line-up on the way down to Essex and had many of his boys playing offense, defense and special teams. In fact, some would never leave the field of play.
This Bisons team was like David vs. Goliath with Essex having 60 players compared to the Bisons 25 but the small band of Bisons played larger then life. Essex seemed to be able to score at will but the Bisons never gave up. They kept playing like the score was 0-0, not a runaway 73-13. Each time the Bisons got knocked down, they got up, dusted themselves off and got ready for the next play. The Essex players and coaches looked on in disbelief as the fourth quarter started and, exhausted by the heat and badly bruised, the Bisons still kept coming at the Ravens. Late in the fourth quarter, with grim determination the Bisons made their fans proud by still playing like the score was 0-0. The Ravens could see into the eyes of the Bisons players that there was no quit in them. The Bisons kept saying “Come on let’s play ball” and played with that tough attitude right until the gun sounded to end the game. The stars of the Bisons team was every player on the team who played their hearts out under terrible conditions but Tim VanSchyndel, gaining 138 receiving yards and scoring two touchdowns, Jeffery Luya throwing for two touchdowns and Darren Neziol gaining 55 tough yards on the ground stood out in particular on offense while James McVicar, Neil Sunderson, Justin Rohr and Rubin Williams played tough on defense all game long.
“The hearts of our players were bigger then the universe itself today. I am so proud of my team. They played hard all game and never quit. You can’t ask for anything more.” said Coach Dan Padmore.
The Bisons travel to London for their next game against the London Falcons on June 6[SUP]th[/SUP] at 8:00P.M. The game will be played at TD Waterhouse Stadium.

Jr. Varsity: Bisons 23 Essex 0—In the weeks building up to his team’s first game, Head Coach Illyas Zylstra knew that the Essex Ravens were a class organization and always had a top 10 ball club. To overcome this, the Bisons players had to be ready to play from the moment they stepped on the field and every player responded to that challenge. The defence was lights out, shutting down the Ravens several times in the red zone throughout the game and never allowing the Ravens to get on track. The defence was led statistically by their captain, middle-linebacker Ruo Xie.
The Ravens’ defence seemed prepped to stop the run, so Bisons offense had to quickly adjust and use the passing game to move the ball and score points. The offensive line did a great job of pass protecting for Quarterback Ben Hall, who threw touchdown passes to Corbin Wilcock, Anthony Powless and Andrew Wilhem to clinch the victory.
“It is great to get that first win under our belt against a good team like Essex. Some mistakes were made but I am quite confident that we can fix them as we continue to progress as a team.” commented Coach Illyas Zylstra
The Bisons travel to Etobicoke for their next game against the Etobicoke Eagles on June 5[SUP]th[/SUP] at 5:00P.M. The game will be played at Centennial Stadium.

Peewee: Pickering/Ajax 20 Bisons 7:No report

ONTARIO MINOR FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Bantam: TNT 41 Bisons 0: The Bisons, coming off a tough loss last week were now facing TNT, a team that went undefeated last year. Along with that, the Bisons also faced traveling all the way to Beeton and then play football in hot, humid conditions. These were very tough conditions for any team to face, let alone a Bisons team that had only been put together for a few weeks.
TNT owned the first half but the Bisons kept responding to the challenge and seemed to get better as the game wore on. The second half was very competitive which the coaches can take back to practice this week as a very positive sign of better things to come. Offensive stars were Luke Imre, who played great at centre. Chris Stewart blocked and caught well as a receiver. Liam Hazell blocked hard and ran tough up the middle. Defensively David Adeniran played a great tackling and pursuit game until breaking his wrist. David Fleet played strong and was in on a lot of tackles, while Nick Allen played tough in the middle.
“Our guys hung in there and kept giving everything they had. They improved as the game went on and we had a much better second half. We will continue to get better as a team once we have had a chance to get more practices in.” said Head Coach Ron Wilcock.
The Bisons travel to Etobicoke for their next game against the Etobicoke Eagles on June 5[SUP]th[/SUP] at 5:00P.M. The game will be played at Centennial Stadium.

Peewee: Hamilton 39 Bisons 7: The Bisons travelled for the second week in a row to face the Steelers at Ivor Wynn Stadium in Hamilton. The game started out well for the Bisons, who relied on a ball control offense, pounding the ball up the middle, runs to the outside and timely passes for first downs. However, the offense seemed to stall in the Steelers’ red zone, getting stopped just short of a first down or taking an untimely penalty. The Steelers offense however used a potent first strike offense and scored touchdowns on their first downs three times in a row, either by long passes or big runs.
The second half was the same story with the Bisons offense moving the ball consistently up and down the field with a solid effort from the entire offensive line and the tough running of fullback Jacob Cockerill. Matt Krason got the only touchdown of the day for the Bisons on a quarterback sneak from the goal line.
On defense it was a rough day for the Bisons as they faced a very talented running back from Hamilton. Missed tackles and bad pursuit angles by the Bisons defense allowed huge gains for the Steelers offense. But there was some light at the end of the tunnel for the Bisons defensive unit. Ty Kelly recovered a fumble at the Bisons 10 yard line and made several good defensive plays. As well, Michael Jambrosnic made some solid tackles and had a good game at linebacker.
“The boys played hard and did not give up even when the game was out of reach. Next week we play Cambridge which is the top team in the League so we are going to have to concentrate on our defense and fine tune our offense during our practices this week and get ready for a great game.” commented Coach James Kelly.
The Bisons will have their first home game against the top ranked Cambridge Lions on June 5[SUP]th[/SUP] at 5:00P.M. The game will be played at the Bisons Alumni Football Complex located at the Gretzky Centre.

Atom: Bisons 8 Mississauga 0: The Bisons were looking to continue their winning ways after a convincing win last week but ran into a very stubborn Pickering/Ajax team and the game turned into a very hard fought defensive struggle.
The first quarter was scoreless with both defences controlling the field. In the second quarter Quin Kramer got a touchdown but the extra point attempt was blocked. In the third quarter the Bisons defense went after the Dolphins offense again which resulted in a safety. After that the Bisons defense took over and stopped the Dolphins offense from getting any points.

“It was a good game for us today, the boys seem to be coming together as a team and it showed today. The defense played exceptionally well and the offense stepped up when we needed them to. A great start to the season.”
The undefeated Bisons will have their first home game against the TNT Express on June 5[SUP]th[/SUP] at 11:00A.M. The game will be played at the Bisons Alumni Football Complex located at the Gretzky Centre.