The Orangeville District Secondary School Bears football team failed to make the playoffs after taking a loss in their final game to Guelph’s Bishop Macdonnell Celtics on the field at ODSS on Thursday, October 22.

The good news is the Bears played their best game of the season scoring more points in the final outing than any other game of the season.

They managed to jump out to an early lead in Thursday’s game with a touchdown from Josh Miller and a field goal from Julian LeBlanc that gave the Bears a 10-0 lead early in the first quarter.

BMAC got on the scoreboard at the start of the second quarter but the convert attempt was blocked.

The Celtics managed to go ahead with a drive to the one yard line then capitalized with a run to the right on the next play to score.

A pass interception in the second quarter gave the Celtics a 10 point lead when the BMAC quarterback called his own number and crossed the goal to score.

“We started off strong, but crumbled at the end,” Said Bears slot receiver Julian LeBlance. “I thought we grew a lot (as a team in the season). We started off and didn’t know what we were doing but brought it together at the end.”

The Celtics went to the throwing game late midway in the quarter and completed a long pass to drop on the 25 yard line – then followed up with a run to score.

Taking possession of the ball, Bears quarterback Fisher Brown threw a long bomb pass that was caught by receiver Josh Miller to bring the Bears to the 50.

Brown followed up with another successful pass to Julian LeBlanc for a first down.

The third time was the charm when Brown hit receiver Miller who had a short sprint to cross the goal.

The Bears were again in possession late in the half when Kyle Touhy snagged a Celtic pass for an interception and a turn around.

Returning for the second half, the Bears received the kick-off but couldn’t dig out of their end and were forced to punt and pinned BMAC at their own ten yard line.

The Bears defence kept the Celtics pinned in their own end forcing them to kick to get out of a hole.

The Bears got their final points of the season when Mitchell Wagner picked up the ball when a Celtic snap went bad and ran to the 20 yard line.

LeBlanc lined up and kicked a field goal for the three points.

“I thought we had them after we scored early,” Said Bears defensive tackle Zach Parsons. “I feel like we should have played a lot better. I think we should have won.”Despite ending the season winless, Parsons said he thought the team put out a good effort.

“The season wasn’t too bad. I thought we were doing pretty well, but in the end, it is what it is.”

Parsons had a huge hit late in the game when he crashed through the Celtics line to sack the BMAC quarterback.
The Celtics claimed the game with two late touchdowns that ended the game at 41-20.

With the regular season coming down to the final few games, Centennial Collegiate was leading going undefeated after five games.

Our Lady of Lourdes is also undefeated after four games.

The semi-final games for the District are scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, with the District championship scheduled for Saturday, November 7, in Guelph.