National Capital Bowl

2004

Date: November 28th

Venue: Ivor Wynn, Hamilton

Crestwood Mustangs defeated Almonte Thunderbolts

COSSA

Crestwood 22, Centennial 14

Semi-finals

Crestwood 14, Regiopolos Notre Dame 6

Almonte 25, St. Peter 0

Championship
 

Crestwood Mustangs 23, Almonte Thunderbolts 5

Review
The following article, written by Martin Cleary, was printed in the November 29th edition of the Ottawa Citizen:

A blocked punt, a bad bounce, an interception and a costly injury proved to be the undoing of the Almonte and District High School Thunderbolts yesterday as they lost their bid to repeat as National Capital Bowl football champions in Hamilton.

In a rematch of the 2003 Eastern Ontario high school final, the Crestwood Mustangs of Peterborough turned three Almonte errors into touchdowns for a 23-5 victory before about 700 fans at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

The National Capital Bowl is one of six regional championships sanctioned by the Ontario Federation School Athletic Associations. Almonte won last year's bowl final 17-2.

Almonte, which advanced to the bowl final by winning the Renfrew- Lanark league and Ottawa Valley titles before beating the St. Peter Knights in the bowl semifinals, led 2-0 after the first quarter on two Mat Metcalfe singles.

Tom Paquette scored Almonte's other points on a 32-yard field goal, which kept the Thunderbolts within three points of the Mustangs, at 8-5, late in the third quarter. However, the Thunderbolts couldn't get any closer, and the Mustangs eventually pulled away.

The Almonte offence struggled, especially after the first quarter, when a concussion forced running back Matt Rice out of the game. Rice, already playing on a slightly sprained left ankle which he suffered against St. Peter, was hurt making a tackle on the punt- cover team.

"We lost our scoring punch, Almonte head coach Chris Spratt said in a telephone interview. "He was covering a punt, lowered the boom and got his bell run. He was a big loss for us. We missed his 'take it to the house' plays."

Travis Vaughan had Almonte's best chance for a TD, but he was hit in the end zone and dropped a potential scoring pass.

Tailback Steve Ward led Crestwood with two touchdowns. His first came on a one-yard run, after Crestwood had blocked a punt and recovered the ball on Almonte's one-yard line.

The Mustangs' second TD was set up after Almonte's Alex Small was unable to pick up a wildly bouncing ball off a Crestwood punt. A Mustangs player, who had lined up onside behind the punter, raced down field and recovered the ball. Ward had a short run for his second major score.

"That was the big turning point," said Spratt, whose team had the support of 200 fans who travelled to the game by bus.

The game also was shown through an Internet webcast into the school's gymnasium.

A fourth-quarter interception led to Crestwood's third touchdown.