Peewee Cougars cap perfect season

The Chatham-Kent Peewee Cougars crushed each opponent in the regular season.

The Cougars showed Saturday they could win a close game, too.

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They collected their eighth shutout of the season in a 6-0 win over the Forest City Thunderbirds in the Ontario Football Conference peewee final at London.

The Cougars recovered a fumble in the final two minutes to clinch the victory.

“Our defence bent, but never broke,” head coach Kevin Pugh said.

Slotback Nolan Ball caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Kelton Evans in the second quarter for the only points.

The Cougars went 8-0 in the regular season while outscoring teams by a combined 355-6.

In the final, however, they gained only 158 yards of offence in 30 plays.

“We only had seven series on offence today: scored once, punted four times, turned it over on a fumble at the goal-line and on downs once,” offensive coach Doug Ball said. “It was hard for the boys on offence to get any rhythm.

“They would get ready to go in the game because our defence had held London on third-and-long a number of times, only to be hit with a penalty which would result in London getting a new set of downs.”

The Cougars received more than 170 yards in penalties, more than in their eight previous games combined, Pugh said.

Ross Krieger and Trent Scaman made key receptions late in the fourth quarter to keep the Cougars’ final drive going before a punt pinned the Thunderbirds deep in their own end.

Brady Pataki gained 43 of the Cougars’ 84 rushing yards and Krieger had 24. Evans completed four of five passes.

Quentin Forgie and Austin Miller made big defensive plays despite being double-teamed all afternoon, Pugh said.

Jake Anderson, Spencer Pugh, Nolan Hakr and Dilan Beaumont shut down the Thunderbirds’ aerial attack, while Tanner Shuian, Kenny Levesque, Jordan Church and Sean Harris clogged the middle.

Nic Melillo and Zach Nicholson also played well inside for the Cougars’ defence, Pugh added, while captain Alex Formosa and Owen Dorssers controlled the outside.

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