Spartans cap unbeaten D10 season with title win
GUELPH – After winning the game that was a good celebration of the return of a normal District 10 high school football season, the Centennial Spartans celebrated at Alumni Stadium after eking out a win in the championship match.
In a game where the defences of both teams shone, the Spartans slipped by the St. James Lions 22-19 to complete an undefeated D10 season.
Centennial Spartans 22 St. James Lions 19
“Unbelievable,” running back Ethan Godino said following Centennial’s on-field celebration. “I’m so thankful for our defence showing up today and our offence coming out to play. We had a lot less penalties which was amazing and exactly what we needed. We had that drive the whole time. We didn’t beat up on ourselves like we kind of did last week (in the semifinal win over Ross). We kind of kept a mellow head and we kept going. I’m just so grateful for this opportunity, for this moment.”
“It’s awesome,” Centennial coach Zach Pollari said. “Like I told the boys, it’s my first win as a head coach. In (2015), I won as an offensive coordinator, but it feels great. That’s why we come out and compete and it’s why we do it. It’s why we put in the sacrifice and put in all the time we put in.”
While there was an abbreviated D10 season last year that saw the teams play three regular-season games, a championship game on a high school field and no games whatsoever on the University of Guelph campus, this year the league was back to its usual five-game regular season for each team followed by the semifinals and final. And most of the games were played at Alumni Stadium including each playoff match.
The Spartans shot ahead in the final minute of the second half, built on that lead in the third quarter and then withstood a fourth-quarter surge by St. James to claim their first D10 football title since 2015. For the Lions, it was their sixth consecutive appearance in the championship game. They won two of them – 2018 and 2021. That’s the longest such streak since the Ross Royals won in 2004 for their sixth straight league title.
“We were dealing with adversity, guys banged up and things like that,” Pollari said. “That’s the one thing I can say about this team. We’ve battled adversity and we’ve always found a way to win. Regardless of whether we’re supposed to win, not supposed to win, we find a way to win. You can’t teach that.”
The Lions, too, dealt with adversity. Running back Owen Ellis, the focus of the St. James attack, watched from the sidelines. He was injured in the semifinal win over the Bishop Macdonell Celtics and was out due to concussion protocol.
As usual, big plays on offence allowed by momentary defensive lapses figured in the scoring in this year’s final. For the most part, though, the defences bent, but didn’t break.
P.J. Fera put St. James ahead early as he kicked a rouge and a 38-yard field goal in the first eight minutes of the game.
Then Centennial went ahead as Godinho found a hole to break through the line and scamper 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play after Fera’s field goal. Godinho added the convert.
The Spartans conceded a safety in the final minute of the opening quarter to allow the Lions to close the gap to 7-6.
After the Spartans had a safety conceded by the Lions negated by a pair of penalties early in the second quarter, it took until the final minute of the first half for the next score as Godinho ran to his left and just got into the endzone for his second TD of the game. That was followed by his second convert of the game to put Centennial ahead 14-6 at halftime. The TD was set up by a 23-yard pass from QB Amrit Atwal to Aiden VanEsch that got the ball to the St. James one-yard line.
The Spartans completed their scoring for the game in the third quarter. Matthew Stam hauled in a pass from Atwal that he took to the house on a 45-yard play to the right. Thiago Nasciemto-Borges kicked the convert.
And Godinho added another point with five seconds to go in the quarter on a 25-yard field-goal attempt that went wide.
The rally by the Lions started early in the fourth quarter when Peyton Cummings caught a 12-yard pass from QB Caden Henry, but a two-point convert attempt failed.
Godinho made what was probably his biggest play of the game with about five minutes to play. After he was wide on a 23-yard field-goal attempt, Tye Cathcart of the Lions scooped up the ball and headed down the right sidelines to eventually be pushed out of bounds at the Lions’ 46-yard line by Godinho, the last Spartan with a shot at saving the touchdown.
“That’s happened to us before,” Godino said of Centennial giving up a TD on a return of a missed field goal. “It happened with Ross last year in the semis. I wasn’t letting it happen again. I was doing anything to get down there and just knock him out of bounds — anything.”
St. James did get another TD as Evan Nikolasevic caught a 25-yard scoring pass from Henry with 1:11 to play and Fera kicked the convert.
However, the only chance for St. James was to recover the ensuing onside kick. Centennial put its ‘hands team’ on the field and their Liam Smith grabbed the bouncing ball and returned it to the St. James 34. The win was assured when Godinho got a first down at the Lions 18 with 58.4 seconds to go. After that it was first take-a-knee time for the Spartans and then jump-for-joy time.
With the championship win, the Spartans get a bye into the CWOSSA semifinals where they’ll face either the Resurrection Phoenix of Kitchener or the Paris Panthers. Those two teams are to play in a quarter-final match Thursday night to decide who gets to host the Spartans Nov. 16.
“We’re definitely going to watch film, correct the mistakes and see what we can do just to get ready,” Pollari said. “It’ll be a combination of film and practice. The big thing is to see who our opponent is,” Pollari said. “We’re just going to take it one day at a time. That’s how we got here and that’s how we’ll continue to do it.”
“If I’m going to be completely honest, I haven’t done too much research,” Godinho said of high school football outside of D10. “I’ve heard Resurrection’s a really good school and Jacob Hespeler’s always up there for a fight. There are obviously some amazing schools and we’ve just got to bring our A game if we want to keep trying to compete.”
The other semifinal Nov. 16 is to pit the District 1/7 (Bluewater) champion against the District 6/11 (Waterloo County) champion.
The St. Mary’s Mustangs of Owen Sound are to play either the Saugeen Royals or Owen Sound Wolves in the Bluewater final. The semifinal between the Royals and Wolves slated for Friday was postponed due to the provincial school labour dispute.
The Waterloo County semifinals are scheduled for Monday. Jacob Hespeler Hawks of Cambridge are to host Laurel Heights Highlanders of Waterloo in one of the games while Bluevale Knights of Waterloo are to host Grand River Renegades of Kitchener in the other. Winners are to move on to the county final slated for next Friday.
CWOSSA semifinal victors gain berths in the association’s final scheduled to be played Nov. 22 starting at 5:30 p.m. at Alumni Stadium. They also gain berths in the OFSAA Football Bowl Series festival at Alumni Stadium Nov. 28 to 30.
For Centennial, they’ve achieved one of their goals, but there are more on their to-do list.
“Our No. 1 goal is to help foster and encourage these guys to develop into strong, positive young men,” Pollari said. “We hadn’t won a D10 championship, that was our goal. The rest? We’re going to see what happens. It’ll be a really good challenge. That’s what I keep talking to these guys about. Every opportunity you have, lets compete and lets put our best foot forward and see what we can get done.”
“What we haven’t accomplished in many, many years, we’ve done,” Godino said. “But we’re looking forward, of course. We’ve got to accept this win, take it for the night, but then we’ve got to get back to practice and keep building upon ourselves to make ourselves better players.”
- Guelph Sports Journal
Spartans cap unbeaten D10 season with title win
GUELPH – After winning the game that was a good celebration of the return of a normal District 10 high school football season, the Centennial Spartans celebrated at Alumni Stadium after eking out a win in the championship match.
In a game where the defences of both teams shone, the Spartans slipped by the St. James Lions 22-19 to complete an undefeated D10 season.
Centennial Spartans 22
St. James Lions 19
“Unbelievable,” running back Ethan Godino said following Centennial’s on-field celebration. “I’m so thankful for our defence showing up today and our offence coming out to play. We had a lot less penalties which was amazing and exactly what we needed. We had that drive the whole time. We didn’t beat up on ourselves like we kind of did last week (in the semifinal win over Ross). We kind of kept a mellow head and we kept going. I’m just so grateful for this opportunity, for this moment.”
“It’s awesome,” Centennial coach Zach Pollari said. “Like I told the boys, it’s my first win as a head coach. In (2015), I won as an offensive coordinator, but it feels great. That’s why we come out and compete and it’s why we do it. It’s why we put in the sacrifice and put in all the time we put in.”
While there was an abbreviated D10 season last year that saw the teams play three regular-season games, a championship game on a high school field and no games whatsoever on the University of Guelph campus, this year the league was back to its usual five-game regular season for each team followed by the semifinals and final. And most of the games were played at Alumni Stadium including each playoff match.
The Spartans shot ahead in the final minute of the second half, built on that lead in the third quarter and then withstood a fourth-quarter surge by St. James to claim their first D10 football title since 2015. For the Lions, it was their sixth consecutive appearance in the championship game. They won two of them – 2018 and 2021. That’s the longest such streak since the Ross Royals won in 2004 for their sixth straight league title.
“We were dealing with adversity, guys banged up and things like that,” Pollari said. “That’s the one thing I can say about this team. We’ve battled adversity and we’ve always found a way to win. Regardless of whether we’re supposed to win, not supposed to win, we find a way to win. You can’t teach that.”
The Lions, too, dealt with adversity. Running back Owen Ellis, the focus of the St. James attack, watched from the sidelines. He was injured in the semifinal win over the Bishop Macdonell Celtics and was out due to concussion protocol.
As usual, big plays on offence allowed by momentary defensive lapses figured in the scoring in this year’s final. For the most part, though, the defences bent, but didn’t break.
P.J. Fera put St. James ahead early as he kicked a rouge and a 38-yard field goal in the first eight minutes of the game.
Then Centennial went ahead as Godinho found a hole to break through the line and scamper 75 yards for a touchdown on the first play after Fera’s field goal. Godinho added the convert.
The Spartans conceded a safety in the final minute of the opening quarter to allow the Lions to close the gap to 7-6.
After the Spartans had a safety conceded by the Lions negated by a pair of penalties early in the second quarter, it took until the final minute of the first half for the next score as Godinho ran to his left and just got into the endzone for his second TD of the game. That was followed by his second convert of the game to put Centennial ahead 14-6 at halftime. The TD was set up by a 23-yard pass from QB Amrit Atwal to Aiden VanEsch that got the ball to the St. James one-yard line.
The Spartans completed their scoring for the game in the third quarter. Matthew Stam hauled in a pass from Atwal that he took to the house on a 45-yard play to the right. Thiago Nasciemto-Borges kicked the convert.
And Godinho added another point with five seconds to go in the quarter on a 25-yard field-goal attempt that went wide.
The rally by the Lions started early in the fourth quarter when Peyton Cummings caught a 12-yard pass from QB Caden Henry, but a two-point convert attempt failed.
Godinho made what was probably his biggest play of the game with about five minutes to play. After he was wide on a 23-yard field-goal attempt, Tye Cathcart of the Lions scooped up the ball and headed down the right sidelines to eventually be pushed out of bounds at the Lions’ 46-yard line by Godinho, the last Spartan with a shot at saving the touchdown.
“That’s happened to us before,” Godino said of Centennial giving up a TD on a return of a missed field goal. “It happened with Ross last year in the semis. I wasn’t letting it happen again. I was doing anything to get down there and just knock him out of bounds — anything.”
St. James did get another TD as Evan Nikolasevic caught a 25-yard scoring pass from Henry with 1:11 to play and Fera kicked the convert.
However, the only chance for St. James was to recover the ensuing onside kick. Centennial put its ‘hands team’ on the field and their Liam Smith grabbed the bouncing ball and returned it to the St. James 34. The win was assured when Godinho got a first down at the Lions 18 with 58.4 seconds to go. After that it was first take-a-knee time for the Spartans and then jump-for-joy time.
With the championship win, the Spartans get a bye into the CWOSSA semifinals where they’ll face either the Resurrection Phoenix of Kitchener or the Paris Panthers. Those two teams are to play in a quarter-final match Thursday night to decide who gets to host the Spartans Nov. 16.
“We’re definitely going to watch film, correct the mistakes and see what we can do just to get ready,” Pollari said. “It’ll be a combination of film and practice. The big thing is to see who our opponent is,” Pollari said. “We’re just going to take it one day at a time. That’s how we got here and that’s how we’ll continue to do it.”
“If I’m going to be completely honest, I haven’t done too much research,” Godinho said of high school football outside of D10. “I’ve heard Resurrection’s a really good school and Jacob Hespeler’s always up there for a fight. There are obviously some amazing schools and we’ve just got to bring our A game if we want to keep trying to compete.”
The other semifinal Nov. 16 is to pit the District 1/7 (Bluewater) champion against the District 6/11 (Waterloo County) champion.
The St. Mary’s Mustangs of Owen Sound are to play either the Saugeen Royals or Owen Sound Wolves in the Bluewater final. The semifinal between the Royals and Wolves slated for Friday was postponed due to the provincial school labour dispute.
The Waterloo County semifinals are scheduled for Monday. Jacob Hespeler Hawks of Cambridge are to host Laurel Heights Highlanders of Waterloo in one of the games while Bluevale Knights of Waterloo are to host Grand River Renegades of Kitchener in the other. Winners are to move on to the county final slated for next Friday.
CWOSSA semifinal victors gain berths in the association’s final scheduled to be played Nov. 22 starting at 5:30 p.m. at Alumni Stadium. They also gain berths in the OFSAA Football Bowl Series festival at Alumni Stadium Nov. 28 to 30.
For Centennial, they’ve achieved one of their goals, but there are more on their to-do list.
“Our No. 1 goal is to help foster and encourage these guys to develop into strong, positive young men,” Pollari said. “We hadn’t won a D10 championship, that was our goal. The rest? We’re going to see what happens. It’ll be a really good challenge. That’s what I keep talking to these guys about. Every opportunity you have, lets compete and lets put our best foot forward and see what we can get done.”
“What we haven’t accomplished in many, many years, we’ve done,” Godino said. “But we’re looking forward, of course. We’ve got to accept this win, take it for the night, but then we’ve got to get back to practice and keep building upon ourselves to make ourselves better players.”
- Guelph Sports Journal