Hamilton Ironmen 2 and 1 in OVFL action

VARSITY

Ironmen Run through Mississauga

The Hamilton Ironmen improved their regular season record to 2-0, after pounding an athletic Mississauga Warrior Squad 23-8 at St. Marcellinus on Saturday Night. The Warriors scored on a long TD pass, and forced the Ironmen to concead a 2pt Safety to take an early 8-0 lead. But momentum gradually shifted and the Ironmen led by RB Ryan Kotar with 2 TD’s, and 200yds rushing and Kicker Julien Hooker who split the uprights for 3 fieldgoals, were able to create an unsermountable lead. The defense made adjustments, and had physical play by DT Anthony Dinguanna with a sack and 4 batted balls, while DB Matt Rowan had a late Interception to halt a last minute Warrior drive. Coach Rob Underhill commented, ” I am satisfied with the victory, but we have lots of work to do. We have to learn to take advantage of our opportunities, and eliminate the reckless penalties”.

JUNIOR VARSITY

The Junior Varsity Hamilton Ironmen travelled to St. Marcellinus field Saturday afternoon to take on the Mississauga Warriors in hopes of bouncing back from their Week 1 upset to Niagara. The Warriors wanted to make a statement in the Adam Golden Horseshoe Division by going up 2-0 but had to play a focused Ironmen squad. Before kickoff there was a mounting level of intensity on the field amongst players and coaches; both teams were ready to battle. The Ironmen game plan was to pressure the Warriors quarterback Marcus Hobbs and keep wide receiver Joshua Stanford in check, while allowing the offense to get in rhythm and run the ball.

Hamilton scored on their second possession on a drive that was typical Ironmen football; run the ball and pass when the defense is gassed. Quarterback Chris Jugovic found an open Jason LeDonne in the endzone to put the Ironmen up by seven. However, on the following possession with the Warriors backed up on their heels inside their five yard line, quarterback Marcus Hobbs found speedster Joshua Stanford open on a seam route for a big momentum swinging touchdown. That momentum carried over to the Mississauga defense as they forced three turnovers in the first half. But the Ironmen defense lead by Domenic Bellardini, Mark Fidani, and Melvin Baughan, along with many other key defenders, kept the intensity up and stopped the Warriors attempts at tacking on more points before half with an interception by safety Jordan Brucculeri.
Mississauga’s first possession of the second half resulted in a touchdown after Hamilton had a blown coverage in the secondary. On the sidelines Ironmen coaches made adjustments and added more pressure on quarterback Hobbs and targeted wide receiver Stanford adding to another Ironmen interception from Sean Siebel. Hamilton’s offensive line lead by Vlad Vesovic, Roberto Rodriguez, Francesco Citino and Matt Doering began to click and come together allowing the offense to gain rhythm with excellent execution of running and passing the ball and wearing down the Warriors defense. As Hamilton added more touchdowns on the ground, one by Quinn Newman, and two from Domenic Bellardini, the Warriors found themselves in a hole. The special teams’ play of Julian Quaglia, Mark Zulak, and Raider Boyd, along with the kicker Bellardini, kept the Warriors deep inside their end, allowing the Ironmen defense to play to their strengths and keep pressuring the Warriors into making mistakes. In the fourth quarter Hamilton’s offense ran the ball into submission to continuously move the sticks and run down the clock. In the end head coach Ken McGuire along with his coaching staff notched their first win of the season (29-14) in a competition against a skilled Mississauga team.
The Peewee Ironmen again were close but failed to
score any points as they lost 22-0 against a strong well balanced
Warrior team.

PEE WEE

The wind was against the Ironmen in the first quarter and it
was evident in the passing game as they failed to convert any
attempts in the quarter and with the ball at their own 5 gave up a saftey
to get out of bad field position, the half ended 8-0

Still in the game Ironmen could not get anything going again in the
second half and the Warriors chipped away to seal the victory.

The Ironmen will have to work hard at practice to turn things
around as another loss could keep them out of the playoffs
A victory would build the confidence the team needs to gert rolling.

The good thing is that we have been in the game in both losses
and we know a couple of breaks and we could be sitting
at 2 and 0 instead of 0 and 2