Saturday night The Steel City Patriots played host to the embattled and short benched North Bay Bulldogs in Northern Football Conference action. The Pats going into the game were looking to put on a good performance as they welcomed Purolator Courier and their Tackle Hunger program to Nelson stadium on a hot humid night.
The evening got underway as fans entered the stadium and dropped off non-perishable food items at The Purolator display and got comfortable in the stands for the game. Once the game got underway The Pats defence took over and scored 3 pick sixes in the first half on the way to a 47-0 lead over a hard-working but undermanned Bulldogs team.
In the second half The Dogs used some trickery to fool the Pats as they went for the short kickoff and recovered the ball but unfortunately couldn’t pull the trigger and score on the Pats defence. The Patriots used the game as an opportunity to get some of the back-ups into extended playing time and they came through with 15 points on two Tds by the offence and a 27 yd field goal by Adam Pallett to close out the scoring and making the final score 62-0. The score though does not indicate the type of game that was played as the Bulldogs could have gave up in the second half came out and played with everything they had from beginning to end and showed the class they have when they joined the Patriots at center field for a talk and team prayer and then joined the team back at Lotos bar and grill for some post game food and talk before heading home to prepare for this weeks test.
The Patriots now at 4-0 will travel up north to take on The Sault Steelers in Sault Ste Marie this Saturday before enjoying their bye week June 30th.
The Patriots, Bulldogs and their fans helped to takle hunger with 300 lbs of food donated to Purolator for their food drive and will be welcoming them back on July 14th at 6:00pm as they take on The Ottawa sooners at Nelson Stadium.
Source: Sam MacBeath