Bantam, Peewee Bulldogs advance to provincial finals

BY JOHN DECOSTE

Kings County Register

Both the Valley Bantam and Peewee Bulldogs have advanced to their respective provincial finals, the Bantams in Tier 1 and the Peewees in Tier 2.

The Bantam Bulldogs remain undefeated on the season with eight wins and one tie following a 16-0 blanking of Truro Nov. 1 in Canning.

The top-ranked Bulldogs got a rushing touchdown and a field goal from Andrew Jennings-Lindsay and a rushing touchdown from Alex McCarthy, along with another outstanding performance from a defense that has allowed just 18 points in nine games.

“The whole defensive unit played fantastic, we were able to move the ball on offense and Andrew Jennings-Lindsay played the best game I’ve seen him play all year, on both sides of the ball,” head coach Larry Priestnall said.

The Bulldogs employed a “jumbo” offense on short-yardage situations, with Jennings-Lindsay at fullback, with some success. Both McCarthy and Iain MacMillan “ran the ball very well,” and Cody Kennie was among the individual stars on defense.

The Bulldogs will now meet the Halifax Chargers, 7-6 winners over Timberlea in the other semifinal, for the Tier 1 bantam championship Nov. 9 at Huskies Stadium in Halifax. The last time the two teams met, the game ended in a scoreless tie.

“Our defense has been really solid all season, so they shouldn’t score too many points against us,” Priestnall said. “It’ll be a matter of how many we can score against them.”

This weekend’s appearance will mark the fourth consecutive year – and fifth time overall – the Bantam Bulldogs will have played in the provincial final, winning in 2006.

In Peewee Tier 2 semifinal action Nov. 1 in Canning, the Peewees blanked Fall River 21-0 behind two touchdowns from Zack Gouthro and nine points on a touchdown, convert and punt single from Rory Graham.

The game was scoreless at halftime, in large part because the Bulldogs dropped a pair of open-field interceptions and fumbled at least three times. Valley got its game together after the intermission.

“I felt we prepared well for Fall River, but we made a lot of mistakes in the first half,” head coach Steve Melanson said. “We executed a lot better in the second half.”

At the same time, the Bulldogs “played very sound defense” throughout the game, key to the team’s turnaround from an 0-3 start to the season. Melanson singled out Brandon Whitman and Michael Acker as having played very well on defense.

Valley’s final score came on a fourth-quarter drive that took 11:20 off the clock.

The Bulldogs will now meet Bedford for the provincial peewee Tier 2 championship Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. on the Burnside turf in Dartmouth. In their only previous meeting on the opening weekend of the season, Bedford won 6-3.

“We feel we match up with them really well,” Melanson said. “Right now, we’re one win away from winning the Tier 2 provincial championship, which would be really huge for these kids. They’ve come an awfully long way this season.”