North Shore under-15 Elites drop Wilson Challenge final

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

It seems winning gold at last week’s annual Wilson Challenge all-star tournament, organized by the Quebec Football Association, just wasn’t meant to be for the under-15 North Shore Elites.

Head coach Warren McCaffrey’s Elites, comprised of the finest graduating peewee players who played last season for one of the eight clubs under the North Shore Football League’s inter-park umbrella, started off the eight-day tourney in fine fashion, capturing their first two contests, 41-6 over the Beauce Elites and 28-3 over the Quebec Elites. However, a lack of discipline - four Elites touchdowns were called back due to infractions - and the fact they could not find an answer to Monstar running back Will Altema, hurt them dearly in Saturday evening’s championship game at McGill University’s Molson Stadium. Altema, who plays for the Sun Youth Hornets, had a tremendous second half in particular, scoring the winning touchdown to help his team secure a come-from-behind 19-14 victory. The emotion-filled match, which took over three hours to complete due to a couple of serious injuries, including one in the dying seconds to Elites running back Anthony Hopkins, was played under wet, dreary conditions.

“We went offside a few times,” said McCaffrey, a former head coach for Alexander Park who is heading into his second season as an assistant under Len Whitham with the Bantam AAA North Shore Cheetahs. “But you have to expect probably at least seven or eight questionable calls from the refs in a game, and you just have to work around them. The Monstars were just a great team. They fought hard, showed a lot character, and really, deserved the gold.”

It was no secret heading into the game the strength of the Elites lay in their running attack, made up of Hopkins, Evan Wiley and Matthew Orsini. However, for some reason, McCaffrey and his staff decided to go to the air during the first half, and it cost them. Their offence never really got in gear for most of the first two quarters, while the Monstars countered with a touchdown by Frederik Boisvert on a 12-yard plunge to take a 7-0 halftime lead.

McCaffrey reverted to the double-wing offence, a trademark of the Alexander Park system, during the second half. He even replaced starting quarterback Vincent Bourgon, an A Ma Baie graduate, with Mario Porreca, who played last season for Alexander and was familiar with the double-wing.

The strategy worked, allowing the Elites’ to successfully pound the ball up the middle, and eventually led to a pair of Hopkins scores, which gave them a 14-13 lead heading into the fourth period. However, they simply couldn’t hold on to that lead, allowing Altema to do his magic with a lovely 60-yard run winning touchdown with a little less than five minutes left to play in the game.