CFCFPC Ottawa (Grade 7s): Top performers and honourable mentions

The grade seven games at the Ottawa Fox 40 Prospect Challenge were a tale of two different football games. While one game was an offensive blowout, the other was a defensive struggle. Winners and losers aside, there were many individual and collective efforts that deserve some recognition from all four teams.

Top Performers – Team Central vs Team Halton-Peel

In a high-scoring affair for Team Central, the team’s head coach, Lawrence Hooper, had plenty of choices for his top offensive performers. He listed running backs Omarion Martin Pendley (#3) and Julius Joseph-Brown (#0) as two of his top players.

“Omarion was exactly what we thought he would be. He literally scored every time he touched the ball,” Hooper said. “Julius played really well.”

Pendley, the overall MVP, had four touchdowns on the game. His first was a 70-yard run and he also got the point after. His second was a 35-yard run, his third was 50-yards and his fourth was 30-yards.

Joseph-Brown, the offensive MVP, had three touchdowns. His first was a rush from centre field where he also scored the point after. The second was a one yard run and his third was a 45-yard run.

“On the d-line, Elijah Trench (#51) played really well. Tons of standouts today and I was really proud of their efforts,” Hooper said.

On Team Halton-Peel, head coach Marcus Obal said that outside linebacker William Kasslack (#74) played well. He also played as a receiver for a bit. Nicholas Rasile (#3), the quarterback, “played really well,” Obal added. Rasile made a nice throw from centre to the 35-yard line in the wind, but it fell incomplete.

Obal also noted that Jakob Obal (#13) played a couple positions, saying that he had a couple good runs. He added that, “We had help from a Cambridge kid, Ashton Metcalf (#2). He did a couple big hits, a couple good runs.” Metcalf scored his team’s only touchdown.

Honourable Mentions

For Team Central, running backs Onochi Amuta (#19) and Eric Lofthouse (#45) scored touchdowns. Linebacker Ryan Foley (#1) and quarterback Peter Terzis (#11) both successfully scored a point after. Defensive back Rhys Ruttan (#10) had two interceptions, the first he managed a 49-yard run that was stopped on the one yard line and the second he scored a touchdown. The defensive MVP, Kaden Charles (#99), had a tackle for loss at one point in the game.

On Team Halton-Peel, Ryan Smith (#17) had an interception.

Top Performers – Team East vs Team West

Team West entered the game with half of the number of players that Team East had. The team held their own, keeping the game close until Team East scored a late touchdown and a point after to win 7-6. Jeff Ferrell, the head coach of Team West, had a tough time narrowing down his top performers.

“That’s a tough one. I would say the whole team because at the end of the day, with the four new kids that we got today, they’ve never seen any of these kids,” Ferrell said. “Throughout the practices, there has only been ten or eleven kids because the roster was so small. So really, I think the whole team. I don’t think there really was any one person that should be singled out.”

For the head coach of Team East, Scott Boxall, gave two names. “I would have to say Justin Shibley (#11), our quarterback, was definitely one of them. Matthew-Michel Assivero (#92), he was definitely one of our defensive stars,” he said.

Shibley made a nice 25-yard throw to receiver Nicolas Cerquozzi (#17), who went down on Team West’s 35-yard line.

But, at the end of the day, Boxall knew it came down to the entire team. “Just having some of the guys go out and play, I mean it was a total team effort,” he said. “It wasn’t too many single individuals. We had a total team effort.”

Honourable Mentions

Running back Tyler Baigent (#33) scored the game winning touchdown for Team East. On Team West, Mason Parmley (#50) and defensive end Karsten Groen (#52) both had sacks.