Metro Bowl

1998

Date: November 28th

Venue: SkyDome, Toronto

St. Michael’s College Kerry Blues defeated Agincourt Lancers

Quarter-finals
November 16th

St. Michaels College Kerry Blues 15, Etobicoke Rams 0

Semi-finals at York University
November 21st

Agincourt Lancers 27, Glendale (Hamilton Public) 22

St. Michaels College Kerry Blues 23, St. Andrews College 11.

Noteworthy: 

Due to labour disputes, there were only five teams involved in the Metro Bowl playdowns. 

Glendale won the Hamilton league title after going 2-2-1 during the regular season.  They advanced by defeating undefeated Waterdown in the league final by three points on a field goal that was made with no time left on the clock.  CISAA was unaffected by the teacher strikes and St. Andrews College defeated Upper Canada College to earn the berth in the playdowns.  Without a league to play in, St. Michaels College played a series of exhibition games recording a 3-2 record before entering the playdowns.  The Toronto schools were severely impacted by a strike by the teachers and, once settled, only three schools fielded teams.  The participating schools were Etobicoke, Richview and (we believe) Northern.  Etobicoke advanced and played the "unofficial" TDCAA champions St. Michaels College in a quarter-final game.  The TDCAA league only had two participating teams.  The Scarborough league operated with only four teams that played a make shift three game schedule.

The following Toronto Star Article: October 30th summarized the situation fairly well:

NORTHERN PULLS OUT

Metro Bowl high school football convenor Jack Leitch made some moves yesterday that will leave some teams happy and others fuming.
Leitch, with support from the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, said the year-end qualifying playoffs for the Metro Bowl will only involve high schools that have participated in leagues or have the backing of their athletic association.
The move opened the door for the 18-team Hamilton-Wentworth league to enter its champ.
In addition, four-team leagues from Scarborough and the Conference of Independent Schools will have entries in the semifinal round set for Nov. 21 at Birchmount Stadium. That leaves the final spot up for grabs.
St. Michael's, which has played a series of exhibition games, and has already beaten Father Henry Carr - the only other team from the Toronto District Colleges loop - may be the lucky one.
Etobicoke schools still have an outside chance their association could lift sanctions while Northern, the only TSSAA team, yesterday pulled out.
"At first, it looked like we could make this a Greater Toronto Area final four but when we found out that some areas had leagues and others didn't, we had to take a serious look at the entire package," said Leitch.
The Metro Bowl, with a kickoff set for 9:30 a.m., will take place on Nov. 28 at the SkyDome followed by the Vanier Cup.

Championship Game

St. Michael’s College Kerry Blues 43, Agincourt Lancers 6

The Toronto Star published the following report by David Grossman on November 29th:

Sweat dripping from his brow, Mark Chiarcossi paused for a few seconds to soak up the biggest football victory in his high school career.

The fleet-footed 17-year-old running back from Toronto's St. Michael's College scored three touchdowns to power the Kerry Blues to a 43-6 thrashing of the Agincourt Lancers in the annual Metro Bowl final yesterday at the SkyDome.

An announced crowd of 2,218 took in the most lopsided game in the 17-year history of the championship, capping a year in which many teams couldn't participate because of teacher labour disputes.

St. Mike's wasted little time reaching the end zone, something they did with ease six times, as Chiarcossi finished off an opening six-play, 77-yard drive for his first TD with 3:28 gone.

From then on, it was just a matter of how bad the score would get.

"The game evolved around our offensive line, they just blew away guys and opened lots of holes," said the diminutive Chiarcossi.

Winner of The Star's game MVP award, Chiarcossi ended the day with 154 yards rushing on 14 carries and three receptions for another 59 yards.

"We knew (Chiarcossi) would be fast but they got the big plays and showed us everything we expected . . . and to perfection," said Agincourt coach Peter Paputsis.

"We thought we'd try to surprise them with a passing game, but they jumped all over us and when you get behind against them it's tough to come back."

Turnovers also hurt Agincourt, making its first visit to the Metro Bowl, as St. Mike's - now 2-2 in post-season finals - converted two interceptions and a fumble into majors and held quarter scores of 7-0, 28-0 and 35-0.

"They tore us apart, took our game plan away and from the first snap were fired up and crisp . . . this was one tough team," said Agincourt star running back Steve McKenzie, who galloped for 108 yards including the Lancers only touchdown on a one-yard run with 1:35 left in the game.

St. Mike's piled up 534 yards of net offence, 367 on the ground, while Agincourt had 305.

Agincourt quarterback Tony Loumankis, unable to get a rushing game going because of a tough Kerry Blues defence, was 12 for 27 in passing for 132 yards including four tosses to Aaron Bowman for 94 yards.

Chiarcossi's other TDs came on a 34-yard run and a 16-yard pass from Conrad Dabiet. Power back Mike Labinjo also had a TD while Dabiet connected with John Rebello for a 41-yard TD with 1:09 until halftime.

Backup QB Eddie Verbanac also got into the action for the winners with a 19-yard TD pass to Kevin Cahill late in the final quarter. Cahill added a two-point convert, Dino Mazza kicked four converts and Anthony Gorys had one.