North Stars take East Region championship

Brandon Pinto described it as his "greatest catch", and for all Newtonbrook North Stars fans it couldn’t have come at a better time as it propelled the team to a Tier 1 East Region boys football championship.

Pinto, who still remembers the low feeling of losing to Lawrence Park Panthers in the Tier 2 finals last season, turned the momentum in the North Stars favor by scoring a 60-yard touchdown in the third quarter. The score proved to be the turning point in a 14-10 victory against Birchmount Park Panthers on Nov. 9 at Birchmount Stadium.

"(The 60-yard touchdown) was definitely a highlight, but everyone played so well especially our defence who were solid," said Pinto who was a big factor in the North Stars losing only one game this year. "Last year we had such an awful feeling losing in the finals, and we didn’t want to feel that again."

Newtonbrook came into the Panthers home field full of confidence with a two-game winning streak, courtesy of a 30-0 over West Hill Warriors in the regular season finale and a 28-0 shutout against Senator O’Connor Blues in the East semifinals.

"We are like a blue collar team and for the whole season we’ve been on a mission," said head coach Peter Bowman. "Last year in Tier 2, our defence only gave up 58 points in eleven games, and this year we’ve once again been stingy on ‘d’."

Birchmount, who were the lone team to defeat Newtonbrook this year, took a 10-0 lead late in the first half before the North Stars offense began to make some noise led by the rocket arm of quarterback Jeremy Sherman.

With seven minutes left in the first half, the North Stars began to move the ball up field and would eventually break through on the scoreboard. Senior Braeden Cockburn showed great strength in breaking his coverage and sprinting in the open to receive a 20-yard touchdown pass.

"It was a real intense game and we just wanted to take it one play at a time and not look too far ahead," said Cockburn, whose touchdown narrowed the deficit to 10-7. "Everyone really stepped up and it showed."

Sherman was getting stronger as the North Stars offense continued to rack up the yards. It all eventually led to Pinto’s catch and highlight run that propelled Newtonbrook into the lead.