The North Bay Senior Bulldogs are unbeaten through three games after a road win in Sudbury on Saturday night. North Bay now 3-0 on the season and now are off until July 8th.
Author of the article:Greg Estabrooks | The North Bay Nugget
Published Jun 18, 2023
Bulldogs keep rolling with a big win in Sudbury versus the Spartans.
Sudbury used to be Death Valley for the North Bay Bulldogs. Not this time. The Bulldogs were powered by three touchdown passes from starting quarterback Jordan Heather and rolled to a big win.
North Bay roared out to a 26-1 third quarter league and cruised to a 39-21 win over the Spartans on Saturday night.
North Bay led 19-1 at the half, 26-8 after three quarters, and won by 18 points.
The Bulldogs scored first on a scoring pass from Heather to Jacob Steringa, convert was good and it was 7-1. Heather scored himself to make it 13-1, then the quarterback hooked up with Steringa again and it was 19-1 at the break.
With the score 26-1 Bulldogs, Sudbury rallied and scored two quick touchdowns, the second after the Spartans recovered an onside kick.
North Bay answered back with another score early in the fourth quarter as the deadly duo of Heather and Steringa connected on a 50 yard touchdown and it was 33-15.
The Spartans scored late to make it 33-21 then backup quarterback Ethan Estabrooks threw a 30 yard touchdown pass to Nick Mondor in the final minute to round out the scoring.
The officiating crew was a mix of North Bay and Sudbury officials. They threw a lot of flags on booth teams in this game making the contest a long one with little flow.
Heather responded to a question about the impact of the penalties on try to stay in a rhythm.
“It doesn’t help but we were able to fight through it and keep focused,” says Heather. “Our guys made plays and it didn’t really affect us as much as it could of, and I was happy about that. It could have hampered out rhythm and slowed us down.”
The Bulldogs quarterback said another issues caused more problem than the blizzard of flags.
“The thing that definitely affected us was not being on the field almost the whole third quarter,” says Heather.
Steringa’s three touchdowns receiving gave him a ridiculous nine through three weeks.
The receiver had this to say about his chemistry with Heather.
“It starts with a lot of communication about what the other team’s defences are doing. Then he trusts me with getting into the right position to make a catch and I always count on him to make a good throw,” says Steringa.
“That kid is really learning how to adjust routes while running them and making plays. He did all that and I don’t think he saw the field in the 4th quarter.” said head coach Marc Mathon.
The Bulldogs also got their rushing game going after two weeks of basically ignoring that part of the offence. Fisher Bilz led the way with 50 yds on 12 carries for better than 4 yds per carry. In the third quarter North Bay got another score on the ground as Jesse Shoults ran one in
Earlier the Bulldogs recorded their first rushing TD of the season with Heather finding a seam in the defense running up the middle on a 6 yard TD scramble.
The Bulldogs are now on a bye, with the entire league taking the long weekend off. Their next game isn’t until July 8th at Mike O’Shea Field, when the Sault Ste Marie Steelers come to town.