Express Varsity team undefeated in OMFL after six games

July 5, 2013 · 0 Comments

TNT Express running back Colin Hall sprints past a Cambridge Lions defender during Sunday’s Ontario Minor Football League game at Mel Mitchell field in Beeton. The Express Varsity squad is undefeated after six games.
Photo by Brian Lockhart

By Brian Lockhart
The TNT Express Varsity Division team is steamrolling through the Ontario Minor Football League this season, going undefeated after six games.
The squad showed how powerful they can be when they posted win number six Sunday (June 30) afternoon in a comeback over the Cambridge Lions at Mel Mitchell Athletic Field in Beeton.
Going into the second half and trailing by 14 points, the Express stepped it up a notch to take control of the game and left with a 23-14 win over the visitors.
The Express are based in Beeton, but have a wide recruitment area with many Caledon-based players signing up each season.
A lot of the success of the club comes from the fact that most of the Caledon area players also are on the roster on local high school football teams; experience that makes the difference for a team in the summer league.
Sunday’s game against Cambridge was a combination of hard work and a successful strategy to wear down the Lions with a running game.
“We didn’t want to pass until the end of the game,” said Express head coach Mario Addorisio. “We had to (pass) a couple of times, but it was mainly a running game. When you run the ball a lot, you wear down the other team.”
The strategy worked.
By the time the game was going into the fourth quarter, the Cambridge squad was trailing and started a desperate attempt to get back into the action with a throwing game that was largely shut down by the Express defence.
The Express put the cap on the game late in the half with a pass into the end zone that ended any chance for the visitors to catch up.
The Express have shut out the competition in two games this season and the last time they went up against the Lions, they left the field with a 35-0 win.
“Our plan was to keep their defence on the field as long as possible,” Addoriso said. “We had sustained drives. We just wanted to have the ball at the end.”
The Varsity squad is looking like the big odds-on favourite to take the OMFL championship this season.
The team will travel to Hamilton next Sunday (July 14) to take on the Steel City Steelers.
They return to Mel Mitchel field in Beeton July 21 to host the Rexdale Raiders for the last game of the regular season.
The kick-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.