Empire Football League

 

Ice Storm 10, Titans 3: At Colchester, the Vermont Ice Storm used Evan Hicks' 37-yard field goal in the third quarter and Jason Young's 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to post an Empire Football League win over Chateauguay.

The Titans used a 35-yard field goal to take a 3-0 halftime lead.

Young ended with 12 carries for 70 yards to lead Vermont.

  

 

Le Soleil du samedi - Édition du 15 septembre 2007

Mouland gets his due
Dan Rosenburg

If former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda boasted of bleeding Dodger blue, then long-time Chateauguay football coach John Mouland can certainly lay claim to bleeding Raider black. He truly has Raiders colours in his veins.

Mouland was with the Chateauguay Junior Raiders at their inception in 1981, serving as an assistant under head coach Ed Padvaiskas. But his involvement in football goes back much further than that. After an impressive career as a player with the storied NDG Maple Leafs, Mouland began to make his mark in local football with Chateauguay Ramblers of the Quebec Senior Football League in the 1960s.

Mouland eventually became head coach of the Junior Raiders and guided them to many Provincial championships before Ottawa teams were admitted to the Quebec Junior Football League and the Manson Cup was introduced as the circuit's top prize.

Following a brief stint at the helm of the Midget Raiders - where he was relegated after being hastily "fired" from the Juniors following a regrettable sidelines incident - Mouland was reinstated by Joe Pistilli, who had succeeded Andy Leclaire as Junior Raiders team president. "This is John's team and this is where he belongs," Pistilli announced.

Eventually, with his health suddenly becoming an issue, Mouland stepped aside as Junior coach and handed the reins to Bruce Bennett. Mouland moved upstairs, holding the dual titles of Junior Raiders' president and governor.

But with his craving for coaching still very much alive, Mouland ultimately took over from Ken Davis as head coach of the Empire Football League's Chateauguay Titans while still filling his Junior Raiders' administrative roles.

Though his legendary grid career is far from over, Mouland was officially informed by City recreation department head Claude Cardinal at the Raiders' game last Saturday that he has been voted into the Chateauguay Hall of Fame.

"I was happy when the City honoured me (along with other volunteers) a few years ago, but this (Hall of Fame induction) tops even that," he said Saturday.

He will be inducted in the builders category on November 3 at Pavillon de l'Ile along with Pierre St-Amant, who turned the Sylphides gymnastics club into a Chateauguay institution.

Two athletes being inducted alongside Mouland and St-Amant are former Olympic swimmer par excellence Robbie Braknis and McGill University basketball Hall of Famer Vicky Tessier.

I remember Vicky showing off her considerable potential in minor basketball at the tender age of 10. And I still recall Robbie training hard at the Polydium for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, under the watchful eye of his sister and coach, Lois Daignault.

Two practitioners of the arts will also be inducted into the Chateauguay shrine for the first time. This year's recipients are actress Sylvie Léonard and builder Jocelyne Laberge of Flûtes-a-Bec fame.

Dan Rosenburg

 

 

09/16/2007

Eagles shut out

STAFF REPORT

 

Watertown rolled past the Scranton Eagles on Saturday night, 40-0, in an Empire League Football game.

Brian Harris returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the second quarter to lead Watertown.

The Eagles managed little offense as quarterback Ted Wallingford threw for 35 yards and three interceptions while under pressure much of the night.

Todd Keichle put Watertown in the lead with a touchdown run on a quarterback sneak in the first quarter.

Watertown broke it open in the second. In addition to the two touchdown returns by Harris, Lester Coles hauled in a 14-yard scoring pass from Keichle.

For the Eagles defensively, George Romiti had 16 tackles, while Nick Parlanti added 10.


Contact the writer: sports@timesshamrock.com

 

 

©The Times-Tribune 2007

 

 

NIKO J. KALLIANIOTIS /
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES

Red and Black quarterback Todd Kiechle leaps past the tackle attempt of Scranton's Lamar Radcliff in the first quarter Saturday.

 

Defense delivers for R/B

CONVINCING ROUT: Harris scores twice on INTs against Scranton

 

By MATT CORDOVA

TIMES SPORTSWRITER

Sunday, September 16, 2007

When Bryan Harris returned his first interception 20 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, Kenny Anderson started feeling a little greedy.

When Harris hauled in another pick on the Scranton Eagles' next play from scrimmage, and took it 27 yards for another score, Anderson started feeling a little psychic.

The mood on the visitors' sideline didn't display such variety, though. The Eagles just felt a little bit helpless.

Harris picked off three passes Saturday night as the Watertown Red and Black defense paved the way for a 40-0 Empire Football League victory at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds.

En route to its third shutout, the Red and Black defense clamped down on the Eagles (3-6) more tightly than it had on any opponent this season. Cumulatively, Scranton didn't even travel the length of the field, gaining just 73 yards of total offense.

"The defense has been playing a lot like this the past few weeks," head coach George Ashcraft said. "We got a couple interceptions for touchdowns, and when that happened it just picked everybody up."

Buried on his own 13 in the second quarter, quarterback Todd Kiechle connected with Lester Cole for an 87-yard scoring strike. The play was the first of a painful two-minute, 18-second span for the Eagles that included Harris's two scoring interceptions.

The interceptions proved to be deflating for Scranton, which watched a seven-point Watertown advantage expand to 27-0 before halftime.

"I was shocked on the second one," said Harris, who said after his first score, Anderson called for another. "It looked like he was throwing it away. But I was right there."

"When the defense scores, it can really set an offense back," Ashcraft said. "Plus, they didn't have a lot going anyway."

But Watertown did. Its 182 yards rushing was slightly below its 195.4 season average, but that was due in large part to Scranton's weak punting game offering the Red and Black superb field position.

The team's second offensive series started at the 50, and culminated with a one-yard score by Matt Quay.

The Eagles' fortunes didn't change in the second half, either, when they generated only 28 yards.

Backup Watertown QB Gary Pelletier engineered two fourth quarter drives — both of which began near midfield — for touchdowns.

One was an 8-yard toss to Earnie Wash, who scored for the first time in nearly two years. He was penalized for an emphatic spike after he came down with the ball. But with only 22 seconds left in the game, the penalty mattered little.

And Wash wasn't the only veteran making a significant impact again. Quay averaged 5.7 yards per carry in addition to his first-quarter touchdown dive.

"He can still run the ball, and he proved that tonight," Ashcraft said of Quay, "and it was nice to see Earnie make that catch and score."

NOTES : Pelletier converted a quarterback sneak for a 1-yard TD in the fourth. ... RB Ernie Miller (4-8) left the game in the third with a leg injury. His status is unknown. ... CB Keith Jones was tackled, and fell awkwardly after attempting to return a missed Scranton field goal. Trainers tended to him, and he finished the game.

OTTAWA 24, TRAILBLAZERS 6

T.J. Williams rushed for two touchdowns in the crucial third quarter, and the Ottawa Deacon Demons secured an Empire Football League victory over the visiting St. Lawrence Valley Trailblazers.

Also in the third quarter, Chris Wakeman scored on a 40-yard touchdown return for Ottawa.

Joe Hutchinson scored on a 21-yard pass from Chris Tom in the second quarter for St. Lawrence Valley, which led 6-5 at halftime.

Hutchinson had four receptions for 39 yards, while Tom completed seven of 20 passes for 92. James Compeau rushed five times for 30 yards.

Cheyenne Dashnaw and Ricky Delaney made 17 and 12 tackles, respectively, for the Trailblazers, and Norm Martel added nine tackles and one sack.

Copyright 2007. Watertown Daily Times, Inc., Watertown, NY. All rights reserved.

 

 

Lake City pulls out win

By CLIFF CONNERS
Staff Writer

— PLATTSBURGH -- The Lake City Stars had two offensive pass interference calls go against them Saturday night.
They also had a huge defensive pass interference call go their way.
On a fourth-and-10 from the Amsterdam 14-yard line with just over a minute left to play, quarterback Kellen Nolan threw a fade to Matt St. Clair in the corner of the end zone.
St. Clair was impeded with by the Amsterdam cornerback defending him, which gave the ball to the Stars at the one-yard line.
And, Brandon Keleher made sure the Stars took full advantage.
Keleher scored from a yard out on the following play to propel the Stars past the Zephyrs, 30-29, in Empire Football League action at Melissa Lahtinen Penfield Park.
The win keeps the Stars slim playoff hopes alive. A Chateaugay loss Saturday and one next week, combined with a Stars victory at Scranton, would allow Lake City to slip into the final playoff spot in its division.
But no matter what happens, Saturday night was a huge success for a Stars' team that has won two in a row and three of their last five games.
"We played the best teams in our division early in the year and we got beat up a little bit," Stars head coach Pat Keleher said. "But they guys have battled back to win a few games and give us a chance. I'm proud of what we have accomplished the past month or so no matter what the final outcome is for us after next weekend."
The Stars fell behind the eight-ball early on when Elijah White, who ran for a game-high 137 yards on 18 carries, scored from a yard out.
Kellen Nolan then found Matt St. Clair wide open in the corner of the end zone just seven minutes to pull the Stars even.
It was a back-and-forth battle all game long between the two squads.
White scored once again, this time from six yards out 5:31 into the second quarter to put Amersterdam up 13-6 after a botched extra-point attempt.
But the Stars answered right back.
Again through the air. And, this time, it was Jordan Keleher's reception from 18 yards out. Thomas Montanaro's extra-point gave the Stars their first lead at 14-13.
Amsterdam then regained the lead with :30 left to play in the half on a 35-yard Alvaro Montes field-goal.
"We played a good first half, but we couldn't stop the run like we would have liked to," said Keleher. It was the first time all year that we had real trouble stopping an opponent's running game, but we continued to battle."
The Zephyrs tacked on another score 6:04 into the third quarter on another White one-yard touchdown run, but the Stars would pull to within two points just 2:30 later when Kellen Nolan found St. Clair from 32 yards out for his second touchdown catch.
A possible concern for the Stars turned into completely the opposite when Montanaro, who started the season with the team but hasn't played since the second week, buried a 20-yard field goal with 8:51 remaining to give the Stars the a 24-23 lead.
Amsterdam, however, showed their capabilities by driving 70 yards on seven plays, capped by a Jon Bechy 17-yard reception to regain the lead, 29-24, with just 3:18 left to play.
Then, it was the Kellen Nolan show.
Nolan, who finished 9-for-18 for 136 yards and three touchdown passes, created a bit of magic with a 14-yard run on third down and a dazzling 37-yard run on a second-and-25 to the Stars up at the Amsterdam 13-yard line.
The Stars, however, couldn't punch the ball in and actually ended up having a do-or-die situation with the fourth-and-ten, before the pass interference call.
Keleher's run capped off an impressive night for the Stars, who have turned their offensive production from anemic to superb in the last two contests.
"Kellen was unbelievable tonight, especially on our last drive," an elated Keleher said. "I had told him he was a good runner and if he saw some green to take off. That's what he did and it paid off for us."
Nolan finished with 85 yards on the ground to go alone with the 136 in the air. St. Clair finished with 105 yards on five catches and two touchdowns.
The Stars will look to continue their winning ways next weekend at Scranton.
--
Lake City 30, Amsterdam 29
Amersterdam7 9 7 6 -- 29
Lake City7 7 7 9 -- 30
First quarter
A- White 1 run (Montes kick), 7:00.
LC- M. St. Clair 26 pass from Ke. Nolan (Montanaro kick), 14:43.
Second quarter
A- White 6 run (kick blocked), 5:31.
LC- J. Keleher 18 pass from Ke. Nolan (Montanaro kick), 11:09.
A- Montes 35 field goal, 14:30
Third quarter
A- White 1 run (Montes kick), 6:04.
LC- St. Clair 32 pass from Ke. Nolan (Montanaro kick), 8:40.
Fourth down
LC- Montanaro 20 field goal, 6:09.
A- Bechy 17 pass from Schaefer (conversion failed), 11:42.
LC- B. Keleher 1 run (conversion failed), 14:05.
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Amsterdam- White 18-137, 3 TD; Schaefer 5-18; T. Pearman 1-3. Totals: 24-158, 3 TD.
Lake City- B. Keleher 14-63, TD; Ke. Nolan 9-85, Geiser 7-(-4), Ky. Nolan 4-12. Totals: 34-156, TD.
Passing
Amersterdam- Schaefer 17-27-0-216, TD.
Lake City- Ke. Nolan 9-18-0-136, 3TD; Geiser 1-1-0-39
Receiving
Amersterdam- C. Pearman 11-126; De Gergio 2-43; Bechy 3-35, TD; Johnson 1-18.
Lake City- Lamoy 1-16; M. St. Clair 5-109, 2 TD; J. Keleher 2-41, TD; B. Keleher 2-19.

Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.

Lake City Stars' Brandon St. John (17) soars in the air to block an extra-point attempt in Empire Football League play at Melissa Lahtinen Penfield Park Saturday evening. Kyle Babbie (52) is also pictured. The Stars won 30-29 in an exciting football game.