Warrior Struggles Continue

Curtis Pryce on a kickoff return during the Warriors last home game June 5. Hamilton won the Ontario Varsity Football League contest 23-7. Warriors lost another game last night in London, falling to the London Falcons.

The Mississauga Warriors have run out of “next weeks.”
They are no longer in a position of hoping to succeed next week to offset early-season losses in order to get back into the playoff picture in the Ontario Varsity Football League.

That’s pretty much the message the coaching staff delivered to the players on Saturday night after the Warriors lost 34-14 to the London Falcons at the TD Waterhouse Stadium on the campus of the University of Western Ontario.

It wasn’t any brighter for the Junior Varsity Warriors either as they lost 45-14 to the JV Falcons Saturday afternoon to fall to 1-2 in the standings.

“The time is now,” coach John Simas told the players after the senior Warriors dropped their third game in as many starts this season. “It’s all about now.

The Warriors will have to win their remaining five regular-season games and have a little luck on their side as well if they have any hopes of a playoff berth.

And there are no saviours on the horizon either because the last day for anyone to register in order to be eligible for the remainder of the season was Friday.
“What you see is what you get now,” said Simas.
It’s not like the Warriors don’t have the talent to win. They just haven’t put everything together.
Against the Falcons, Javion Elson ran for 165 yards on 28 carries. Damone Williams and Tevin Roberts combined for another 57 yards along the ground. Quarterback James Welton completed eight of 17 pass attempts for 91 yards.

But that yardage produced only two touchdowns. Elson scored on a 15-yard run in the third quarter and Roberts plunged in from the one-yard line in the first quarter to put Mississauga ahead 7-6.

The defensive secondary, missing a couple of players because of injuries, struggled against defending OVFL champion Falcons. London took advantage of that to convert third-down and long-yardage situations into first downs five times.

The JV Warriors trailed 24-0 at halftime and was never able to recover, even though they scored on two big plays in the third period. Lukas Gavac broke two tackles in the London secondary and scampered 78 yards to narrow London’s lead to 24-7. Josh Stanford scored the other Mississauga TD on a 110-yard kickoff return.
“We’re a young team with a young coaching staff,” said JV coach Greg Gary. “It’s growing pains. It’s all a part of football. We’ve got talent on this team and I see us as part of the mix in the end.”

The Peewee Warriors had a much better outing than their older club mates. The Peewees improved to 3-0 this season by beating the Peewee Falcons 36-13.
“Our guys are really doing well,” said coach Dog Ward. “Our defence has been amazing all season.”
Quarterback Nate Hobbs threw three touchdown passes. He delivered a pair of touchdown strikes to Fraser Miller and one to Zeph Fraser. Daniel Mariano ran for 160 yards on the day and scored once and Saad Amir added 97 yards along the ground and he had one touchdown.
The Peewee, JV and Varsity Warriors all travel to Niagara next weekend to face the Spears.

Picture: Going nowhere. Mississauga Warriors Sean Snary (34) makes a tackle on Hamilton Ironmen Photo by John E. Sokolowski

By Gary McCarthy Mississauga News