The Sarnia Sturgeon Junior Varsity won their home opener against league rivals the Hamilton Panthers at Norm Perry Park on Sunday by a score of 37 - 7. 

 

In this game it took 3 hours to play as the both sides suffered many penalties. Tempers flared at the end of first half that resulted in two coaches (one from each team) and a visiting parent being ejected from the game.

"We had a rivalry with Hamilton from last year, once we got control of the kids in the second half it was a nice clean game." said coach Steve Belrose  "It hurt us in the first half, we had a lot of penalties, we have to correct that, we can't have penalties and we can't win football games if we have penalties" 

 

        

Sarnia led 14 - 0 after the first half and went on to score 23 points in the second.  Hayden McLean scored 3 touchdowns, two on passing plays and 1 run in.  Mitchell Smiley and Conner Sullivan each scored touch downs on running plays.  Kicker Blake Maxfield earned 5 extra points and 2 points was earned on a safety.  Late in the final quarter Hamilton's Alex Howlett ran the ball in for a touch down and Tyler Nobel earned the extra point.
 

The Junior Varsity are now 2 - 0 for the season and see action next weekend in Sudbury.

 

In other Sturgeon games, the Bantams lost their season opener yesterday in Toronto against the Junior Argos 30-26. Their home opener is next Sunday at Norm Perry Park against the Oakville Titans.

The PeeWees lost their second in as many games on Saturday in London against the Forest City Thunderbirds by a score of 33 - 12.  Forest City went up 14 - 0 in the first two minutes of play, however Sarnia fought back and scored a touchdown later in the 1st quarter and another in the 2nd quarter to start the second half trailing by 2.

 

In the second half the Forest City quarterback scored 3 touchdowns all on 70 yard runs to widen the lead. 

 

"All in all, I'm quite pleased with the performance of my team." said coach Tim Purdy "They moved the ball up and down well and gave a great effort."

 

 They play in Hamilton against the Panthers next weekend.