Steelers off to NFC championship (20 Photos)

The Sault Steelers are off to the Northern Football Conference final.

The Steelers picked up a 51-21 decision over the Tri-City Outlaws at Rocky DiPietro Field on Saturday night to advance to the title game next weekend, a game the Steelers earned the right to host thanks to finishing the regular season with a 7-1 record.

After dropping a 14-7 decision to the Outlaws in week one on the road, marking their lone loss of the NFC regular season, the Steelers won seven straight to end off the regular season and proceeded to win their first playoff game against last week against Sudbury

“It was a convincing win but as we got up a few points, we got a little lax defensively, not recognizing the team they are,” said Steelers coach Brandon Lewis. “That’s a veteran team, a hard team to play. I’m beat up right now. When you start to take them a little lighter as you’re scoring points, it’s a team that doesn’t stop and they started to crawl back.”

The Steelers jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening quarter and led 23-0 in the latter stages of the second quarter before Tri-City got on the board in the final minute of the first half.

A pair of third-quarter touchdowns by Josh Gauthier pushed the Steelers lead to 37-7 before Tri-City began chipping away at the large Steelers lead. Gauthier then ran the ball in from 45 yards out to make the score 44-21 and the Steelers went on to seal the win on a James Castellani 12-yard touchdown run in the final moments of the game.

Gauthier finished the day with 346 yard rushing and three touchdowns on 26 carries in the win. As a team, the Steelers ran for 443 yards.

Matt Leask ran for a touchdown as well from 14 yards out. Leask finished the day six-for-seven passing, throwing for 80 yards, which included a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jesse Hill. Leask kicked seven converts and a pair of single points as well in the win.

“Once we started rolling (offensively), we definitely did some things right,” said Lewis. “We took a lot of time off the clock with a couple of our scoring drives, which was really good to see. That was a positive and you need that in tight games.”

Defensively, Lewis had 10 tackles while Kofi Osei and Matt Gauthier added four tackles each. Michael Hope returned a fumble 38 yards for a touchdown as well in the win.

Kris Kusch (1-yard run), Shawn Ashe (32-yard catch) and Ryan Yantz (50-yard catch) had the touchdowns for Tri-City in the loss.

With the win the Steelers advance to the NFC championship against the Montreal Transit. Montreal won the East Division final, beating Durham 44-0 to advance. The Steelers will host Montreal Aug. 17 at 7 p.m.

Photos courtesy Kenneth Armstrong