Saints 43, Titans 38
Toronto West wins 4th church football title in 8 years
The OYMFL trophy has known only one address – Albion Road in Rexdale. And it’s travelling just five lights up Albion from the defending champs Mount Olive church (at Islington) to #1621 where it will grace the Toronto West trophy case – again.
The Toronto West Saints jumped all over the Toronto East Titans from the opening whistle last Sunday and never looked back until the game was just about done. By the time the final whistle sounded, the teams had scored 81 points total, with West winning 43-38, in a game many thought over before the first half ended.
It was West’s fourth title, to go with championships in 2012, 2013 and 2017. Olive won it 2015, 2016, 2018 and Apple Creek won in 2014.
“Winning never gets stale,” said defensive captain Sheldon James. “I must confess I hate to lose more than I love to win. So that keeps the fire going.”
As the Saints huddled just before kickoff, offensive captain Darnell James urged the squad: “Let’s step on their necks early and don’t let up. Everybody. Right from the kickoff!”
That’s just what they did. The T-West blitzkrieg began with the opening drive that saw the James Brothers leading the charge until the ball ended up in Sheldon’s hands in the endzone.
East Titans’ turned over their first possession on downs.
The Saints’ next drive caught East napping when T-West pulled a trick “girl play” that went from Thalia Wright to QB Andrew Heaney who found a streaking Tiffany Hall and she took it to pay dirt. A two-point convert made it 16-0 before some fans were settled in the bleachers at Mississauga Valleys.
West’s defense held again, forcing East to punt for a single point.
Then newcomer Ellen Bruna Alencar pulled down a spectacular grab on top of an East defender’s head. Three drives. Three straight touchdowns. Two for female scores. All three converted for 2 points each. Score? 25-1.
QB Heaney was hot early and stayed hot. When receivers were covered he ran the defense in circles. And he spread the ball around, hitting all targets.
It was all but over – except we are talking football. And the history of East Titans-Toronto West Saints playoff matchups is one of close games decided in the final seconds. Still, fans felt this one was over – until East scored just before the half to resuscitate a squad on life support.
“The way the game started it looked like East came out pretty flat and West was just having their way with them. They went up 3 scores,” said Isaiah Shikongo, a newcomer to OYM Football who burst into prominence with spectacular plays for Perth Panthers.
“I have to give Carnel credit for his second half performance. It was looking like a blowout, but they at least made it interesting.”
“West is a great team. Of course they are going to score. They have a high-powered offence so I wasn’t surprised when they scored on their first drive,” said East QB Carnel Baugh.
But West scored on the first, second and third drives; and they stopped East twice.
“Well, I wouldn’t say, ‘stop us.’ I missed a couple of throws; but at the end of the day, give credit where credit is due,” said Baugh. “Still, I was not worried. We scored going into the half. I decided I was going to score on every single drive after that and we did. Had I connected with my receivers in the first half we’d be having a different conversation right now.”
Some say the semi-final game the night before took the steam out of the East squad. In fact, the Titans were sky high against a short-handed Mt. Olive squad and celebrated the victory with gusto Saturday night.
“I woke up still a little high and excited from Saturday night, but once I got going there was no stopping. After that it was ‘Who’s going to score last’. I wanted to make the game competitive. It’s been a while since we got to the finals so if we are going to go down, let’s go down fighting. We got the ball and kept scoring and scoring.”
The problem is T-West’s offence didn’t completely dry up in the second half. The team cycled in the reserves on offence and defense, emptied the bench, and still scored twice (Darnell James and Ellen Bruna again) while East’s four scores still left them short.
“I was not afraid of, or intimated by, West’s defense because the defense hadn’t done anything scary all season,” explained Baugh. “We played them in the regular season and scored 30 points so I was pretty confident we could do it again.”
Except, the beleaguered defense had two early stops. West’s girls put the clamps on elite East girls Jasmine Phipps and Amanda Davidson; and Andrew Brimpong put the lid on Nathaniel Pinto, East’s star recruit.
“Was it me missing my throws or them getting a stop?” Baugh debated with himself. “I wouldn’t say they stopped me. A stop is a stop. But I just think I missed a couple throws.
The way Baugh saw it, no defense was being played on either side of the ball. West captain Sheldon James saw it differently.
“Our defense had a game plan and we executed it flawlessly,” James said. “Actually we did better than I thought we would in not allowing a single offensive point until just before halftime.
His team came up with a defensive strategy to contain the amazing battery of East girls and limit the damage from Pinto, their nuclear weapon.
Brimpong was equal to the task, backed by Shaun Sorias, Dan George, Flavio Alfico, Kirk Dunchie and James. And even when East “woke up” in the second half, their top weapons were contained, leaving the comeback slow and manageable – a strategy that proved successful.
Using a girl rusher in Tiffany Hall, Bruna and Thalia Wright stayed glued to the East girls, preventing long, open gains. Their replacements Juvonne Jaddo and Sandy Senior also didn’t give an inch limiting the gains by Alecia Lewis, Sushana Harris and Samantha Reid.
“Our offense got whatever it wanted the entire game. And in the second half the defense forced East to burn clock and timeouts. When you have such a big lead the only enemy is turnovers and quick scores. I think our team did a great job limiting both,” James said.
The championship game featured 10 touchdowns, five from each team. But T-West converted all five for 10 points. East converted just two, essentially, the difference in the game.
The 81 total points was a championship game record and the highest score of any single game in league memory. Both teams had three girl TDs. East had one turnover on downs and West threw an interception – a late game flub that slipped through the T-West player’s fingers and was spectacularly scooped off the ground by East’s Pinto.
That made the ending interesting. Down 10 points, East needed two scores. They got one with three plays to go, and then Sheldon James intercepted the convert deep in the end zone, ran it out, and lateralled it to Sorias for the 100-yard 2-point score.
“There was never a time in the game that I didn’t feel we were completely in control. We dominated from the kickoff until that 100+ yard runback,” the captain said.
Scoring for East were Samantha Reid, Sushana Harris, Jasmine Phipps. Adrian Pardinas and Sheldon Griffiths. For West: Sheldon James, Tiffany Hall. Darnell James and Ellen Bruna with two. Brimpong had three converts.
The victory was the fourth title for Toronto West in their eight years in the church league. They’ve been in the finals for the last three years – winning in 2017 and this year. Last year they fell to Mt. Olive, their sister church, five stop lights away on Albion Road. So, for five straight years, the trophy has resided along Albion Road in Rexdale.
East has been steadily climbing up the competitive ladder since the glory days at the start of the decade.
“We had an end-of-year meeting on how to get better,” said Baugh. “In order to compete with Olive and West and Creek, every year you have to get better. We picked up some playmakers like Jasmine and Pinto. With the ball in his hand he’s a dangerous weapon.”
Toronto East Titans ended the regular season with a league best 7-1 won-lost record. They beat Apple Creek by one point in the quarter-finals and throttled defending champions Mt. Olive in the semi-finals. But they couldn’t overcome their nemesis, T-West.
“The key is growth. This year we came up short again. It’s been a while since we won the finals so it’s back to the drawing board.”
Toronto West finished the regular season at 6 wins and 2 loses (to Mt. Olive and East). They beat Kanisa in a close quarterfinal game; and they survived three TDs from Shaun Ross to slip by Downsview and get to the championship.
Hail to the 2019 OYMFL champions:
Abi Marshall, Adan Bartholomew, Andrew Heaney, Andrew Brimpong, Avalon James, Chelsea Bartholomew, Chris Gordon, Cymonne Henry-Roper, Daniel George, Darnell James, Dennis Langley, Ellen Bruna Alencar, Flavio Alfico, Juvonne Jaddo, Kirk Dunchie, Lamar Ferguson, Marvin Clarke, Orlando Pule, Royson James, Sandy Senior, Shaun Sorias, Sheldon James, Thalia Wright, Tiffany Hall, Tiffany James, Tyffany Ambrose.
The Saints dedicated the win to beloved teammate Marvin Clarke who had a season-ending injury in week 7. We pray for his complete recovery.
