Western Patriots making gains

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

When the expansion Western Patriots became the eighth team to play under the North Shore Football League (NSFL) inter-park umbrella last season, its brain trust knew of only one certainty.

It would suffer its share of losses, and suffer it did. The association, whose protected territory is Ile Perrot and Pincourt, with Vaudreuil-Dorion remaining open territory for both the Patriots and the St. Lazare Stallions, went a collective 0-33 among its atom, mosquito and peewee teams in its first season.

Year two in the club’s short history is now in the books, and while its atom and mosquito squads finished their regular seasons with respective 1-8 and 0-10 records, its peewee team made considerable gains, ending up 4-6 while battling right to the last game in an effort to qualify for the upper-level NSFL playoffs. When all was said and done, it finished in sixth place, and played the Sunnybrooke Bombers on Sunday in a Founders Cup semifinal contest at Glenn McHugh Field in Dollard des Ormeaux. Head coach Hugh Allan’s Bombers came out on top 30-18. The Pats led 18-6 at halftime, only to see the Bombers regroup and dominate the final two quarters to secure the win.

“Last year, most of the time was spent teaching our kids how to play football,” said Pats peewee head coach Jim Beauchamp. “This year, we had a good return ratio with a solid number moving up from mosquito, and about 10 kids who had never played before. If we would have taken the same philosophy during the first half of the year that we took during the second, we would have been even more successful.”

That philosophy was to play the veterans more on a team whose key players included quarterback Samuel Dumoulin and running back Gabriel Lirette. Ironically, both had never played football before.

“Lirette had an outstanding year,” said Beauchamp, who admitted without hesitation the highlight of the year was his team’s 16-8 upset victory of the Lakeshore Cougars on week nine. “He’ll move up to bantam next year, and whoever is lucky enough to get this kid next year will be a better team.”

Pats president David St. James said he was pleased as punch with the progress of the peewees, but he would have like to see the atoms also do well.

“Still, the atoms were in almost every one of their games this year,” St. James said. “They won one game. But you know, the numbers are so good in our association, you have to be positive about the future.”