Steelers advance by blanking Outlaws

Continuing their penchant for making plays when they are needed, the Sault Steelers advanced into the Northern Football Conference semi-finals with a 20-0 win over the Tri-City Outlaws.

Playing with home field advantage, the Steelers used a strong defensive performance and the strong leg of kicker Anthony Posteraro in the quarter-final win on Saturday night in front of a large crowd at Rocky DiPietro Field.

The Steelers now move into the NFC semi-finals, which will be played next Saturday at Rocky DiPietro Field against an opponent that has yet to be announced as of late Saturday night. The Oakville Longhorns will host the other league semi-final.

In the only other reported NFC quarter-final score from Saturday, the Oshawa Hawkeyes used a long catch and run touchdown from Gifford Rose late in the game to defeat the hometown North Bay Bulldogs 26-24.

Against Tri-City, a first quarter 31-yard field goal by Posteraro would be all that the Steelers would need. Despite the fact that Tri-City outgained the Steelers by over 20 yards in net offense, the Steelers stalled every Tri-City drive with key plays including a pair of interceptions by Troy Boyer and fumble recoveries by Gordie Campbell and Stu Waite.

"We are a very opportunistic team, there is no question about that. We have been able to get it done when we had to all year," said Steelers head coach Barry Rushon. "I thought all facets of our game were good. Our defense bent a bit but they got tough when the time to get tough was there and we created a couple of turnovers with them in our red zone."

The Steelers took a 10-0 lead into the half when Tim Higgins caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Seth Cond. Keegan Franklin added a four-yard touchdown run in the third quarter while Posteraro, who also kicked two converts, hit a 21-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

Josh Gauthier was the top Steeler rusher with 44 yards on 10 carries while Franklin added 34 yards on nine carries. Cond, who played the entire game, completed nine of 15 passes for 125 yards. Higgins caught four passes for 52 yards while Gauthier caught two for 29 yards. Boyer led the special teams unit with four punt returns for 87 yards.

"I thought our special teams were great today. We have some guys on this team who are special teams specialists and they did a great job. Posteraro was outstanding and he went out and did everything we asked him to do tonight. He had some great deep kicks, a couple of well placed pooch punts and a couple of field goals. I think his kicking kept them off guard and those parts of game are very important," said Rushon.

"We even threw in a little reverse on the punt return which turned out to be a very effective play for us. These are all little things that seasoned, hard-working teams accomplish."

On defense, Robert Southwind recorded 7.5 tackles while Brandon Lewis added 5.5 tackles, Campbell 4.5 and James Albidone 3.5.

Check back with SooToday.com sports for complete NFC quarter-final results and semi-final pairings when they become available.