Western Bowl

2007

Date: Tuesday, December 4th

Venue: Varsity Centre, Toronto

Mother Teresa (London) defeated Holy Names (Windsor)

AAAA Playdowns

Lambton-Kent Bowl: Chatham-Kent Champion (Ursuline, Chatham) 14, Lambton-Kent Champion (Northern, Sarnia) 7
Ursuline: Dave D'Aliasi TD; Conrad Mahoney TD; Ryan Lozon 2C
Northern: Ashton Elnicki TD; Tyler Hopkins C

SWOSSAA Final: Windsor Champion (Holy Names, Windsor) 27, Lambton-Kent Champion (Ursuline, Chatham) 6
Holy Names: Chad Boutette 3TD; Chris Canzoneri 2FG
Ursuline: Jeremy Walker TD

WOSSAA Championship: TVRAA Central Champion (Mother Teresa, London) 30 vs. TVRAA South-East Champion (St. Josephs) 16

CWOSSA Semi-final: Bluewater Champion (Saugeen, Port Elgin) 42 at District 10 Champion (Guelph) 28

CWOSSA Semi-final: Waterloo Champion (Sir John A. Macdonald) 17 vs. Brant Champion (Brantford) 3

CWOSSA Championship (November 23rd): Saugeen, Port Elgin 28, Sir John A. Macdonald, Waterloo 21
Saugeen: Liam O'Neill 2TD; Brook George TD; Jordan Archer TD, 2ptC
Sir John A. Macdonald: Djordge Gavrilovic TD; Dave Michael TD; Andrew Mealing TD

Western Bowl Semi-final (December 1st): SWOSSA Champion (Holy Names, Windsor) 37, CWOSSA Champion (Saugeen) 3

December 4th: 12:15
Championship at Varsity Centre, Toronto

WOSSAA (Mother Teresa, London) 30,. SWOSSA Champion (Holy Names, Windsor) 7

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Noteworthy:
Fourth consecutive Western Bowl title for a team from London.

Mother Teresa 30, Holy Names 7

Reviews:

The London Free Press published the following report by Ryan Pyette on December 6th:

Matt Rossoni stood on the 50-yard line -- his teammates hooting, hollering, hugging around him -- and the look on his face said it all.

Incomprehensible.

The Mother Teresa Spartans, who started playing high school football five years ago, are OFSAA Western Bowl champions with a 30-7 victory over Windsor Holy Names Knights before about 1,000 in chilly weather yesterday at the University of Toronto's Varsity Centre.

"Our school is brand new, only something like five years old," said Rossoni, a veteran running back/linebacker who scored one of his team's four touchdowns and made several big defensive stops.

"I always had confidence in our group but to win the Western Bowl, it's really hard to believe. Give a lot of the credit to our coaches. They worked so hard to put us in this position to succeed. This is as much theirs as it is ours."

Mother Teresa is the fourth straight team from London to claim the top high school football prize for the western part of the province. The Aquinas Flames won last year and Catholic Central put together wins in 2004 and 2005.

But few schools have experienced the ultimate rush so quickly and it's hard to believe the Spartans will fall off the football map any time soon. They spotted Holy Names a touchdown lead, then piled up 16 points in a dominant second quarter and never looked back.

"We started out a little slow, we were two-and-out on offence and then they went down the field and scored," said Mother Teresa head coach Kevin Barnes.

"I think some of that was nerves, maybe some rust, but we made some big plays and that got us going.

"It was just a great day. We didn't have any snow as we feared, and it was a well-played game by this team. I'm very proud of these guys."

Of all the big plays, none was larger than one made by the team's smallest player: five-foot-six, 165-pound special teams standout Ryan Welham.

The fiery pepperpot jump-started the Mother Teresa attack by blocking a Chris Canzoneri field-goal try -- one of two in the pivotal second quarter.

Both blocked kicks led to Spartans touchdowns and put the London school up for good.

"What can I say -- I like this field," said Welham, also a key figure in helping the London Falcons win the Ontario Varsity Football League junior title in the summer on the new U of T turf. "They (the Knights) came at us and punished us in the first quarter. But we bounced back, started to play our game and got on a roll and if my kick (block) helped that, then that's great.

"You're just out there trying to make a play."

Barnes called Welham the team's hardest tackler and he proved it by helping pin the Knights on their goal line in the second quarter. Holy Names ended up conceding a safety -- Mother Teresa's first two points of the game -- and the Spartans smelled blood.

"Our defence knew they weren't going to pass because we had gone down (to LaSalle Sandwich to watch the Knights beat Port Elgin Saugeen 37-3 in the Bowl semifinal) and they hardly threw at all," Rossoni said.

"They ran hard. They were tough, but once we stopped them (on the ground), the game swung in our favour."

The victory capped a wildly successful fall for the Marshall family with quarterback Donnie and receiver Brian, who enrolled at Mother Teresa this year after moving from Hamilton, winning the title in front of dad Greg, the head coach of the Yates Cup champion Western Mustangs.

"Everyone thought we wouldn't be ready (because an automatic Bowl bye left the Spartans 19 days between games), but we had a great week of practice at the London Soccer Dome and we knew we'd be fired up and ready to go," Donnie Marshall said.

"We were able to pass the ball. In the cold, it's not that bad. It's when it's wet out that it makes it tough to throw."

The shifty Marshall was at his scrambling best and fully recovered from a tear in his quadriceps that dogged him in the city final against Lucas.

He ran in a third-quarter touchdown that was set up by a well-executed flea-flicker pass to brother Brian.

"That's a play we worked on during the break," Barnes said with a grin!

Mother Teresa's biggest offensive gains came through the air but all four of its touchdowns were scored on the ground.

It was a microcosm of the team's season -- huge leaps forward but moving doggedly ahead toward the promised land.

"I had no idea what we would be able to accomplish this year," Donnie Marshall said. "OFSAA champs. There are no words. I've got nothing."

From nothing to something special -- that's Mother Teresa football.

The Windsor Star published the following report on December 6th:

London Mother Teresa put up 30 unanswered points to beat the Holy Names Knights 30-7 Wednesday in the OFSAA Western Bowl final in Toronto.

Running back Chad Boutette punched one in and Chris Canzoneri added the convert to give the Knights a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Mother Teresa stormed back with 16 second-quarter points and tacked on touchdowns in the third and fourth to nail down the championship.

"They were a very good team," Holy Names coach Rob McIntyre said.

"They did some things that we had never seen or never had to defend in our league."

The Knights finally figured out how to play against a spread offence but, by then, the damage was done.

Offensively, McIntyre said they struggled with execution.

"We moved the ball well in the first quarter but then we couldn't sustain drives after that," McIntyre said.

The Knights missed two opportunities to close the gap in the second quarter when one field-goal attempt was blocked and another never got away following a muffed snap.

"We ended up coming away with no points," he said.

"If we kick both, we go into the half down three and it might have been different."

Two fan buses made the trip to Varsity Stadium to support the WECSSAA and SWOSSAA champs.

"I think the kids enjoyed the whole experience even though we didn't finish like we wanted to," McIntyre said.

2007 Western A/AA Bowl

Semi-finals
Amherst 24, St. Christopher 17
Our Lady of Lourdes 19, Glendale (Tillsonburg) 16

Final
Amherst defeated Our Lady of Lourdes