The Sault Steelers are a win away from dethroning the Oakville Longhorns after battling to a 21-11 win over the Mississauga Wolverines on Saturday night.
In a long, tough and hard hitting affair, the Steelers continued to display the ability to make key plays when needed as a pair of fumble recoveries and a big play run led to the victory in front of close to 1,000 people at Rocky DiPietro Field.
With the semi-final playoff win, the Steelers have advanced to the Northern Football Conference championship game next Saturday in Oakville against the 10 time defending champion Longhorns at Bronte Athletic Field. Game time has yet to be determined.
Oakville advanced with a 64-0 pounding of the Oshawa Hawkeyes on Saturday night in the other semi-final match-up. The Longhorns have won every league championship since 1993.
Against the Wolverines, the Steelers opened the scoring as Adam Carpenter jumped on a fumbled punt return in the end zone for a 7-0 lead 5:46 into the game. Jon Nedeljkovic, who led all rushers with 171 yards on 20 carries, tied the game for Mississauga late in the first quarter on an eight-yard run.
Domenic Camastro put the Wolverines ahead 10-7 in the second quarter with a 26 yard field goal before tight end Tony Boniferro completed the first half scoring with a spectacular one handed 27 yard touchdown grab from quarterback Seth Cond to put the Steelers ahead 14-10 at the half.
Mississauga, which scored an early second half punt single, was threatening to take control of the game in the fourth quarter. On fourth down with the Steelers pinned on their own eight-yard line, the Wolverines fumbled a punt for the second time on the ensuing kick, which gave the Steelers the ball back and better field position. Carpenter made his second fumble recovery of the game on the play.
A series later and time running down, Josh Gauthier busted open a 66 yard touchdown run with 1:55 remaining to seal the 21-11 win. Anthony Posteraro kicked all three Steeler converts.
"That was tough, tough game out there and our guys battled hard. I thought we had some troubles on special teams but we were able to turn in two good individual plays by Adam Carpenter on their mistakes with the fumbles. I felt we also some trouble with our pass coverage but our defense stopped them when they needed to," said Steelers head coach Barry Rushon.
"This crowd (Saturday) was a huge benefit for us. They gave us a boost when we need to dig down deep in our pockets and grab some energy. They were behind us all game cheering on our defense and when we needed that first down late in the game, the crowd was loud and I think that helped us get that touchdown. Seven points were directly responsible because we had the crowd behind us."
In a scary event, Boniferro was taken off the field by an ambulance after a suspected broken ankle with seconds remaining in the first half. Boniferro, who has had previous injuries on the same ankle, was nailed below the knees on a full speed flying block by a Wolverine defender on a punt return.
Gauthier led the Steeler rushers with 103 yards on six carries while Toby Traveson added 79 yards on 16 carries and Keegan Franklin 40 yards on seven carries. Cond completed five of 13 passes for 80 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Brandon Lewis led the defensive attack with seven tackles, including three for losses. John Maione made 7.5 tackles while Russ Moyle, Jamie Kennedy and Darren Woods recorded four tackles each.
The Steelers gained 296 yards in total offense including 216 rushing while Mississauga tallied 293 total offensive yards, including 211 along the ground.
The Steelers will have their hands full with Oakville, a team that is as perfect as a team could possibly get. As the championship run gets longer, the Longhorns are a team that is getting tougher.
"We don't have a long time to celebrate this one when you hear about a 64-0 score on the other end," said Rushon. "We know we are going to be walking into a hornets nest down there and it's not a whole lot of fun but we will give it everything we have."
In eight regular season games this year, the Longhorns allowed only 28 points against while scoring 351 points offensively, both league bests by a large margin. The team recorded six shutouts allowing 21 points in a game to Oshawa in week two and seven points to Tri-City in the final regular season game. Including the playoff game, Oakville averages 46.1 points for per game and 3.1 points against.