Week 1 winners are Week 2 winners, too
GUELPH – Marco Piccioni of the Bishop Macdonell Celtics had a quarter for the ages in District 10 high school football Friday night at Alumni Stadium.
Piccioni scored three touchdowns in the second quarter, all in different ways, to spark the Celtics to a 33-9 victory over the Ross Royals.
“I definitely did not come in expecting to get three touchdowns as a defensive player,” Piccioni said. “It was amazing. We came out ready to work because these guys (Ross) last year in D10, they were fighting for the championship. We knew it was going to be a battle. We went back from (a win over) Lourdes last week. We did a great job there and we did an even better job here so I’m super proud of everybody. Proud of all the defence, offence — everyone executed.”
Playing on defence, Piccioni returned an interception for a TD and he also scooped a fumble deep in his own zone and returned it to the house. The other TD came when he returned a punt to the Ross endzone.
“A little bit of everything. That’s what we like to do and that’s why we play linebacker so we’ve got to keep our heads up all the time,” Piccioni said. “We’re just out here working and we’re always looking to make plays. Our (defensive coordinator) loves takeaways so we got him some takeaways tonight.”
Piccioni’s TDs helped the Celtics stay hanging with the St. James Lions and Centennial Spartans as all of Week 1’s winners were also victorious in Week 2.
That leaves the other teams in the six-team loop — Ross, the Guelph CVI Green Gaels and the Lourdes Crusaders — tied at 0-2.
“It’s a great start,” Piccioni said. “We expected this. Our expectation was to go undefeated this year. Our goal is to go to OFSAA. We came into this battle, we were ready for anything. We knew this was going to be a really good team so 2-0, great feeling after beating a great team.”
The Celtics led 7-1 at the end of the first quarter before Piccioni’s efforts gave Bishop Mac a 27-3 lead at halftime. They extended the advantage to 33-3 by the end of the third quarter.
Philip Oates and Sam Shoniker each scored a TD for Bishop Mac while Martina Vair kicked three converts.
Troy MacDonald caught a TD pass in the fourth quarter for Ross while Charlie Thurtell had a rouge and the team collected a safety.
St. James 38 Guelph CVI 3
The Lions received TDs from five players as they opened the weekly tripleheader with a win in front of a large crowd on their own field.
“It was just being aggressive,” St. James defensive back Owen Evans said of the Lions’ stingy defence in the game. “They had a really pinched offence so it was just being aggressive, making plays, getting it down there and just reading what we saw on the offensive side.”
St. James led 9-0 at the end of the first quarter, 23-0 at halftime and 38-0 after the third quarter.
Nathan Holt, Noah Donnelle, Owen Ellis, Peyton Cummings and Angus Boateng each scored a TD for St. James while Messiah Gordon had a pair of two-point converts, P.J. Fera had a rouge and a convert and Nick Muzzi had a two-point convert.
Ewan Helwig kicked a field goal with about two minutes to play to prevent GCVI from being shut out.
Evans had an interception in the game and came close to a second one. He and the rest of the Lions draw a little inspiration from a preseason loss to the Resurrection Phoenix of Kitchener.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting,” he said. “We had a preseason game where we didn’t play that great so a team like this…you’ve got to treat them the same way. You treat them all the same, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side.”
And the Lions refuse to look too far ahead. The next opponent doesn’t matter until their game against the current opponent is finished.
“We were expecting to have a pretty good season,” Evans said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys back from last year. We had a good team last year, won the championship, so it’s a good start so far, but we’ve got to keep rolling. On to the next team.”
Centennial 37 Lourdes 0
The Spartans also had a big second quarter as they scored three TDs in that quarter to extend a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter into a 28-0 advantage at halftime. They led 35-0 after the third quarter.
“The game went well, it went really well,” Yinka Ogunnote said. He had a TD for Centennial. “I was very happy about it. I feel like I could’ve caught more balls, but it is what it is. Our offence did pretty well. Our defence is pretty good.
“We’ve just got to keep focusing, focusing on next week and just keep getting better and better because that’s really where we’ve got to lock in. We’re looking past D10 and that’s the goal, really.”
Ethan Gordinho scored a pair of touchdowns and kicked two converts while Matthew Stam also scored two touchdowns. Jacob Cossit added three converts and the team also had a safety.
“We’ve just got to focus,” Ogunnote said was the key for a good season for the Spartans. “We can’t let the score of the game matter at all. It’s about a standard. Even if we’re winning, it doesn’t matter. It’s about how we do, no fouls, how we’re working together and if we’re all focused and locked in. We’ve got to keep the standard — making our tackles and making our runs and that’s all that really matters. We have our own expectations to meet. We don’t care about anything else, just us and getting better every day. That’s the goal.”
- Guelph Sports Journal