“They had a couple deep throws on offence against us in the first half,” recalled Coach Rob Underhill, “we threw a couple of early picks that hurt us.”
After being dominated by the Sabercats aggressive play for the better part of the first half, the Ironmen stole the momentum near the end of the second quarter as defensive back Anthony Trabucco picked off the Sabercats as they were driving down the field to take away a potential score before halftime.
“That was huge for us right there,” stated Underhill, “after Anthony made that interception, I thought, well now we’ve got a shot.”
In a tight game such as this, which proved to be a defensive struggle, Underhill knew that they would have to play shutdown defence for the rest of the game if they were to succeed.
“I told the defence that we can’t allow any points in the second half if we want a chance to win this game,” he said, “we’ve been here before, we know what it’s like to play from behind, I had complete faith in our defence.”
The defence rewarded their coach with a near flawless second half performance, stuffing the Sabercats offence and forcing turnovers. Defensive lineman Justin Vaughn had a big fumble recovery for the Ironmen and linebacker Santino Gallo was a force up front, tackling everybody and anybody in a yellow jersey.
While the defence was working hard to keep the score within reach, the offence was busy chipping away at the lead. Quarterback Alex Hill turned it on after a mediocre first half finding wide receiver Jordan Brucculeri for a touchdown bringing Hamilton within one point.
After another defensive stand, Hill and the offence took over again late in the fourth quarter with time running out. Hill finished off an impressive drive with a touchdown pass to slotback Daniel Petermann to put the Ironmen ahead with just over three minutes remaining.
Hamilton failed on the two-point conversion attempt so the Sabercats got the ball back for a drive that needed to end in a touchdown. With Sault Ste Marie threatening on the 40-yard line, they needed to go for it on a 4th and 1, looking to catch Hamilton’s defense off guard they attempted a hook pass, which was deflected by linebacker Eric Mezzalira to seal the win.
“This was a gutsy win for us. We had a couple players out, notably [kicker] Domenic Bellardini and [running back] Jeremy Haggarty,” revealed Underhill, “so we had Trabucco kicking and he did a great job filling in. We also gave Justin Lloyd some more carries in Haggarty’s absence and he made the most of them.”
Trabucco and Lloyd’s contribution to the offence were greatly appreciated in a game where Alex Hill did not put up a very Hill-like stat line.
“Alex struggled for the first time this year,” Underhill admitted, “but he’s a competitor, he’s what I’d like to call a winner and he did just that. He may not have played his best game, but he finds ways to win, and that’s what you want from your quarterback.”
You can put another 4th quarter comeback on Hill’s resume as Hamilton wins again and is now sitting pretty at 5-0. While Underhill is obviously happy with where his team is at, he knows that in this league, they can’t take anything for granted.
“It’s nice to be 5-0, but it’s nice for us to be able to dictate our own destiny. We knew that Essex and Sault Ste Marie were going to be speed bumps that we’d have to overcome and we did,” said Underhill, “but the next half of our schedule is not easy by any means.”
The Ironmen and their coaching staff get a much-deserved rest as they head into the bye week. Hamilton then will head to Etobicoke to take on the Eagles (2-3) Saturday July 7th at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute. Game time is scheduled for 4:00pm.
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