London Beefeaters 65, Ottawa Sooners 3
Ottawa kicked off to begin the game and, following a 38-yard kick off return by Mitch Spence, the Beefs went to work. Four plays later, at 1:57 into the game, quarterback Jake Pow ambled into the end zone for a major that was converted by John-Kurt Andreacchi.
The Sooners, aided by a couple of penalties, managed to get the ball to the Beefeater 22-yard line but their drive stalled there and Derek Giacobbi came on to successfully kick a 29-yard field goal to put Ottawa on the board. Four minutes later, Andreacchi booted a 22-yard field goal to put the Beefs up 10-3 at the end of the first quarter.
Three minutes into the second frame, Joey Cortese took a Giacobbi punt and returned it 64 yards for another Beefeater touchdown. Andreacchi’s convert was good so the score moved to 17-3. Five minutes later quarterback Clarke McCallum connected with Tazie Vang-Bell and when the play was over, they had combined for an 87-yard catch and run touchdown. The convert made the score 24-3. Just as the first half was drawing to a close, Danny Byrne blasted in from 8 yards out for six more points and, for good measure, then caught a 2-point conversion pass from McCallum to make the half-time score 32-3.
Early in the third quarter Ottawa conceded a safety. Four minutes later McCallum connected with Spencer Foster for a 26-yard touchdown pass. With the conversion, the score rose to 41-3. Three minutes later, Vang-Bell darted 35 yards for another touchdown to raise the score to 48-3 with the conversion. Just before the end of the quarter, Byrne scored his second touchdown on a 5-yard burst. The conversion upped the score to 55-3 as we moved to the fourth quarter.
Another conceded safety by Ottawa added 2 more points to the Beefs’ total and half-way through the frame, running back Felix Noel bulled his way for a 17-yard rushing touchdown, carrying several Sooners with him as he was determined to find the end zone. The conversion made it 64-3 and the final point came on a rouge by punter Will Corcoran.
The Beefs’ defense held the Sooners to 31 rushing yards and 39 passing yards. When you factor in Team Losses, the net Ottawa offense was -18 yards. In contrast, the Beefs had 324 yards rushing and 316 yards passing with no team losses for a impressive net offense of 640 yards.
Danny Byrne led the ground game with 133 yards on 11 carries while Tazie Vang-Bell added 86 yards on 7 carries. Jake Pow, Felix Noel and Clarke McCallum accounted for the remainder of the rushing total.
In the air, Jake Pow was 4/8 for 76 yards while Clarke McCallum, who played the bulk of the game, was 10/20 for 240 yards and 2 touchdowns. Daniel Jaffe had 5 catches for 92 yards, Spencer Foster reeled in 4 passes for 51 yards and Tazie Vang-Bell had 1 reception for 87 yards. Mitch Spence, Connor DePodesta and Bailey Holmes also caught passes.
Defensive statistics were once again spread out as 28 Beefeaters recorded defensive points. Travis Clark, with a tackle and 2 interceptions, had 10 defensive points while Dylan Clarke with 1 tackle, 2 sacks and 1 knock down matched his total.
The only negative to the Beefeater game was, again, the number of penalties. This week it was 20 penalties for 215 yards compared to Ottawa’s 5 penalties for 39 yards. Against better competition, that penalty total would be disastrous.