On a cool, wet fall day, the margin for victory was razor-thin as Patrick Fogarty Catholic Secondary School hosted their gridiron rivals from St. Peter's Catholic Secondary School in an intense playoff clash on the slippery home field of the Orillia school.
In the end, thanks to a missed extra point from the Panthers, Fogarty stunned their Barrie foes, earning a hard-fought 7-6 victory.
“You don’t often have an all-varsity team compete against an all-senior team, but we did it and won, which is huge for us,” said Flames assistant coach Andy Long, who noted the Flames players were all Grade 9 and 10 students. The Panthers' team boasted a roster of entirely Grade 11 and Grade 12 students with much more experience.
The game was a defensive battle that featured some hard-hitting tackles and slip-and-slide catches.
Eventually, Flames linebacker Owen Shellswell got the ball and ran it down the field to score the first touchdown of the game.
“It felt great to score our first touchdown of the game,” he said.
The Flames successfully kicked the extra point to give them a 7-0 lead, which they were able to hold onto going into the second half of the game.
During the second half, the Flames continued their attack on St. Peter’s in an attempt to give themselves a bigger lead, but St. Peter’s held strong.
Late in the fourth quarter, with less than five minutes left on the clock, St. Peter’s scored a touchdown after one of its players went end to end to score. That put the Flames in an unhappy mood.
That mood changed quickly as a St. Peter’s extra point attempt to tie the game failed, sparking the Flames to roar back to life from the sidelines.
“All we have to do is hang on now,” head coach Martin Treash yelled from the sideline.
The Flames did just that, held onto that lead and won the game 7-6.
“This win is huge for us and is so great to see after bringing back football to PF,” said Long.
Patrick Fogarty revived its program last year after not fielding a team in nearly a decade. It looked like the program may have to be paused again when the team's head coach transferred to another school.
However, Treash, a former offensive lineman for Mount Allison University, who is also a teacher at Patrick Fogarty, took the football reins to ensure the school could continue to build its football program.
The playoff triumph is especially gratifying after the Flames' slow start to the season. Fogarty was crushed in each of its first two games, but rallied to win two of its final three regular-season contests — including a huge win over St. Theresa's last week — to earn home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
— With files from Tyler Evans
