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Returning home wasn’t all it was cracked up to be for the Sault Sabercats junior varsity team on Saturday afternoon.
Costly mistakes saw the Sabercats drop a 49-15 decision to the Myers Riders on Saturday at Superior Heights in Ontario Summer Football League action.
For the Sabercats, the loss drops the team to 1-1 on the young season.
“The difference was mental mistakes,” said JV Sabercats coach Jim Monico. “We were making mistakes constantly throughout the game; most of them were mental. I don’t think that they’re 34 points better than us. They played well, but we made so many mistakes.”
“It’s tough when you play a good team; you can’t make those mistakes,” Monico added. “There’s no room for error.”
The mistakes led to an unravelling for the Sabercats, who cut the Myers lead to 21-15 in the second quarter only to see the Riders score a late touchdown to extend the lead before cruising through the second half.
“We were ready to play,” Monico said. “We made a lot of mental mistakes like blocking the wrong guy, not covering the right guy, running the wrong routes and making the wrong reads on offence. It was mental mistake after mental mistake, and we unravelled.”
Monico said the feeling that the mistakes are fixable for the young club.
“In a lot of ways, we’re happy that the mistakes are mental,” Monico said. “We feel that we can fix mental mistakes. If you’re getting beat physically and you’re not good enough, you can’t fix that. I think we’re good enough.”
“I told the players after the game: disappointment happens,” Monico added. “It’s how you respond to that adversity. We have to come back and get ready for Peterborough and get better from this.”
Myers opened the scoring just under five minutes into the opening quarter when Jeremiah Haye ran the ball in from 44 yards out. Matthew Rebeiro kicked the convert on the play.
The visitors extended the lead to 14-0 thanks to an eight-yard touchdown catch by Jack Howell and a convert by Rebeiro.
The Sabercats got on the board when Nathan Guizzetti caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matti Tucker on the final play of the opening quarter to cut the Myers lead to 14-7 after a convert by Jack Burnett-Haubert.
Haye ran the ball in from 43 yards out early in the second quarter to extend the Myers lead to 21-7 after a convert by Burnett-Haubert.
On the kickoff, Guizetti ran the ball back 111 yards for a touchdown. After a bad snap on the convert, Tucker hit Jack Metcalfe in the endzone for two points to make the score 21-15.
Heading into the half, the Riders made it 28-15 thanks to a 16-yard touchdown catch by Matthew Rebeiro on a pass from quarterback Ashton St. Germain to end the half.
Monico called the late-half touchdown a difference-maker.
“We battled back and made it 21-15, and then they scored late in the half, and that was a bit of a back-breaker,” Monico said. “It was a momentum that we never got going on our side. When we fought back, they responded right away.”
An eight-yard touchdown catch by Jack Howell and subsequent convert by Burnett-Haubert extended the Myers lead to 35-15 midway through the third quarter.
Caleb Weeks then caught a 22-yard touchdown pass from St. Germain with just under six minutes to go in the fourth. A convert from Burnett-Haubert made the score 42-15.
With 3:05 to go, Howell caught a 21-yard touchdown pass, giving the Riders a 49-15 lead after the convert by Jack Burnett-Haubert.
Jack Mcpheson caught a pair of passes for the Sabercats for 81 yards.
Ethan Carchidi had seven tackles for the Sabercats defensively.
Haye finished the day with 167 yards rushing for the Riders on seven carries.
Howell caught eight passes for 151 yards, while Rebeiro caught four passes for 102 yards.
St. Germain completed 26 of 37 pass attempts for 362 yards
Haye ran the ball seven times for 167 yards.
Defensively for the Riders, Vito Frangione had 5.5 tackles while Peter Raia had 4.5, and Landy-Gary Giot had four.
The Sabercats return to action next weekend on the road against the Peterborough Wolverines.