Kerry Blues roll to another CISAA title
St. Michaels Kerry Blues continued its domination by defeating St. Andrew’s Saints 36-15 in the CISAA senior boys football championship on Nov. 7 at Eugene Melnyk Sports Field.
Eddie Houghton scored three touchdowns and ran for more than 200 yards, while Brendan Morgan and Paul Adamic also had touchdowns for St. Mike’s.
The defending Metro Bowl champs have now won four league titles in the last five years and secured a berth in this year’s Metro Bowl Final Four where they will face the Durham Region champion on Nov. 29 at Esther Shriner Stadium.
Both these teams closed out the regular season against each other on Oct. 27 in a 33-7 affair, as Kerry Blues handed the Saints their only loss of the season by shutting down their offensive line, running back Nick Saro and quarterback Max Bauer.
It was a similar story this time around as the Saints had a tough time tallying yards against a solid Kerry Blues defence.
"We put 10 men in the box and they still were able to pound the ball at us," Saints head coach Courtenay Shrimpton said on his team’s performance. "Offensively we also didn’t move the ball; they just brought a lot of physical force."
The Saints seemed to show some resolve after Zech Miller’s touchdown midway through the second quarter, but was stolen by Houghton shortly thereafter, as he outran the entire Saints defensive line for a 55-yard touchdown that put the Kerry Blues up 21-7 to end the first-half.
"I think they actually carried me," Houghton said of his play, scoring half of his team’s 36 points. "I can’t do anything without my offensive line, wide-receivers and quarterbacks, so they really helped me get through this game."
Kerry Blues head coach Paul Forbes agrees.
"I thought we were outstanding. A couple of fumbles, but other than that, we played a fantastic game," he said. "We controlled the ball and the defence really shut them down."
At the three-minute warning of the second-half, the game was out of reach for the Saints by 29 points, but they refused to show any sign of defeat, as their last touchdown was the final play of the game.
"That’s the pride – to never give up and so they kept fighting offensively. They just wanted to put it in there," Shrimpton said. "(It) doesn’t matter what the score is, they just want to keep playing till the end."
Forbes says he feels confident going into the Metro Bowl semi-finals where his team will be in familiar territory.
"We play the Whitby-Durham champions, Oshawa league. We’ve played Pickering a few times the last few years, so we already know the league has outstanding athletes and strong teams," he said. "But who we’re going to play, we haven’t watched them yet.
"But we will now."
