Gladiators romp over T-Birds

Sudbury Gladiators defensive back Pat Pilon had every reason to smile and be happy, but he wasn’t.

The Gladiators had just defeated the visiting Forest City Thunderbirds 49-31 in Sudbury’s 2010 home-opening game at Queen’s Athletic Field Saturday evening and Pilon had played a pivotal role with two interceptions, including one he returned 44-yards for a touchdown.

Read More: [url]http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2632388

Pilon was close to jubilation when the dust settled on the game, but then he realized just how much Forest City had scored. The 31 points against were more than enough to take away the smile from Pilon’s face.

As a proud member of a proud defensive core, Pilon knew 31 points against is not going to cut it in the Ontario Football Conference if the Gladiators have any real hopes of being a championship calibre squad.

“There’s no way we should have allowed them to put up 31 points,” Pilon said with a stone face.

“A win is a win, but we should have kept them down to a much lower score. We all know we’re better than that and we all know we have to be better than that. We’ll fix it for sure. We do have a lot of pride. We had over 200-yards in penalties, too. That didn’t help at all. We basically marched the ball down the field for them. That doesn’t make us happy. We’ll be better next time.”

The Gladiators were back at Queen’s and playing in front of a rabid hometown crowd for the first time in more than a year. The team started the season on the road for four games in which they went 2-1-1.

The Thunderbirds were also primed for the game and got the ball rolling in their favour when they connected for a field goal with 10:14 left in the first quarter to jump ahead 3-0.

The play woke up the Gladiators offence as they stepped back on the field and produced the game’s next three touchdowns in the first quarter and in convincing fashion.

Mark Randa got Sudbury on the board when he hauled in a big catch from quarterback Dan Poirier.

Moments later, running back Joey Martellacci smashed his way through a hole and two defenders to score again. With the extra points, the Gladiators. On the next offensive possession, Martellacci capped a long drive with a short run and spectacular leap into the air and over two defenders into the end zone for the major. With the extra points, Sudbury walked out of the first quarter up 21-3.

“We were excited to play here after being on the road for the last four weeks and we wanted to come out and knock them out early,” Pilon said.

The second quarter was Pilon’s time to shine.

The Thunderbirds got their wings underneath them and started to move the ball effectively in the air. They made a mad march down the field and were in scoring position when Pilon made his first interception and returned it for the touchdown to make it 28-3. Forest City came right back and charged down the field again, but as they began to sniff the end zone, Pilon made a dramatic goal line interception and got the Gladiators out of trouble.

Forest City didn’t sink away and got some life with about one minute to go in the first half when Jimmy Wiebe hauled in a pass for the major to make it 28-10 at half time.

“Those interceptions mean a lot to me, but also it meant a lot to the whole team,” Pilon said. “Plays like that pumps up the offence and defence and changes the momentum. The whole bench was going after that. It gave us all a big boost.”

In the third quarter, the Thunderbirds built off their late touchdown from the previous quarter and scored early thanks to a touchdown pass caught by Bryce Meertens to make it 28-17.

Sudbury had an answer in the form of 6-foot-three, 225-pound wide receiver Josh Haslam who stepped up under intense defensive coverage and hauled in another Poirier pass for the major to make it 35-17 and give the Gladiators more breathing room.

Haslam was just warming up.

In the fourth quarter, Forest City clawed back with a score when quarterback Justin Van Horik scrambled into the end zone to make it 35-24.

Haslam answered right back with authority as he showed soft hands and a steel focus to bring in a 65-yard pass through double coverage and score to make it 42- 24.

The two teams traded touchdowns one more time before the final whistle screamed out — Forest City getting a score from Bryce Galpin and Sudbury getting one from running back Jordan Lajeunesse to make the final 49-31.

Sudbury’s offence was on the ball and Haslam praised quarterback Poirier for making the majority of the 49 points happen.

“Dan played a great game,” Haslam said. “He connected with his passes and hit the receivers in stride. He just put the ball where we could get it. Our running backs were going hard today and nothing was going to stop them. We wanted to show we could put up some points and we did that.”

Haslam deflected praise for his own game, which was as important to the victory as any other player. He was just doing his part for the “family.”

“It feels good to score a few touchdowns and help out the guys on the team,” Haslam said. “We’re a bunch of brothers and doing something good for your brothers feels amazing.”

Sudbury head coach Brent Richer saw a lot of good things on the field in the victory, but also a few bad things he wants to see cleaned up as the team moves forward.

Richer was impressed with how the offence moved the ball and established the running and passing game.

JUNIOR GLADIATORS FALL

Earlier in the day, the Sudbury Junior Gladiators fell 38-6 to the Forest City Junior Thunderbirds at Queen’s.

Despite the loss, head coach Sam Cuomo is inspired by what he has seen out of his troops lately. He just wishes the team would be able to leap out of the gates at the start of the game instead of spinning their wheels.

“Once again we came out flat and they scored on their first series after we kicked off to them,” Cuomo said. “We were only down 15-0 at halftime. After that initial score, we held them to eight points the rest of the half. Then they scored again to start the second half. It deflated us a bit.”

With time winding down in the fourth quarter, fullback Sean Kelly broke loose form the Forest City defence and rumbled into the end zone for the Junior Gladiators first ever OFC touchdown.

The historic moment could have a positive impact as the young club moves forward.