FPF Junior Championship Reviews

The FPF Junior season is over and all six of our divisional winners have been crowned. Flight School had another fantastic showing. They won in four of the five divisions they competed in. The only division where they did not take home the big honors was in Midget. For one last time this season, here is your weekly FPF Junior article.

Divisional Recaps:

Sophomore: The season in sophomore actually wrapped up last weekend. Congrats to the Panthers for their championship run.

Atom: The only game left to be played in Atom was the finals. As expected, Flight School and the Jaguars were facing off.

The star in Flight School’s victory was the uber talented Jordel Springer. It seems like there is nothing the young man cannot do. He has enough athleticism to excel at any position. In this game, he made his presence felt as a quarterback, a receiver and a defender. He set the tone early with a dominant drive. He completed three passes before connecting with Max Paquette for a three-yard touchdown pass. On the second play of the Jaguar’s opening drive, Springer once again made his presence felt. He read the play and picked the Jaguars off. He did not waste any time in scoring. On the very next play after the interception, he connected with Jacob Reid for a 16 yard score. Those two quick scores set the tone for the rest of the game. Flight School went on to score 20 points in that first half. In the second half,  Springer showed off his receiver skills. He caught a 40 yard touchdown pass from Thomas Toniolo. From that point out, Flight School were really on cruise control. They had held the Jaguars to only 12 passing yards. Perhaps most impressively, they were able to contain Jaguars’ quarterback Jacob Jenikovsky. All season Jenikovsky, had been terrorizing opposing defences with his legs. In the regular season, he ran for 216 yards and averaged 15 yards per carry. In this game, Flight School held him to 24 yards on his six carries.

The Jaguars should leave this game with their heads held high. They were facing the most dominant player the Atom division has ever known in Jordel Springer. The Jaguars evolved from a group of strangers into an impressive team over the course of the season. At the start of the season, many of their players had no idea what flag football was. By the end of the season, each player had improved and the Jaguars formed a fearsome unit. If this team sticks together and keeps on improving, they will be winning championships soon enough.

Mosquito: The final in Mosquito was an all Flight School affair. It was ultimately a plethora of quarterbacks that lifted Flight School 2 to a 33-14 win over Flight School 1. Amani Ho Sang was their main quarterback. He passed for 133 yards and three touchdowns. Flight School 2 got off to a dream start in this one. They started on defence and on that opening drive, Tristan Neil picked off FS1 and returned the interception for six. With the half quickly approaching, it looked like FS2 were going to finish the opening 22 minutes with a six point drive. However, their offence went into overdrive for those last few plays. Ho Sang completed a 30-yard pass to Victor Leclerc for a score. Just a few plays after FS1 got the ball back, Tristan Neil came up with yet another big interception. That interception was followed by a 20 yard touchdown pass to Jailen Chopra to stretch FS2’s lead to three scores and then on their last drive before the half, Ricardo Di Zazzo capped off an electric 28-yard run with a score to give his team a 25-0 lead heading into the half. While FS1 outscored their opponents 14-8 in the second half, it was not enough to overcome their first half deficit. FS1 were able to move the ball in this game but, their main issue was turnovers. They threw six interceptions. In any game, six turnovers is the perfect recipe for disaster. The main thorn in FS1’s side was Tristan Neil. The young man added two more interceptions in the 2nd half to finish the game with four.

Pee-Wee: I considered the Gladiators to be the frontrunners all year long in Pee-Wee. When they were knocked out in the semi-finals, I had to revise my predictions. The championship match featured Flight School versus the AP Hurricanes. Flight School soared to a 38-20 victory.

Most of the time in championships, teams take a conservative approach. They sacrifice offensive production in the name of ball security. Clearly, Flight School threw that doctrine out the window. Flight School were not scared to air the ball out and try multiple deep shots. While FS quarterback Obryan Bouchard did throw for a staggering 231 yards and five touchdowns, he also threw two interceptions. Luckily for Flight School and Bouchard, their defence bailed them out with two picks of their own.

While the Hurricanes might have been able to pick off Bouchard and contain most of Flight School’s receivers, the one player they had no solution for was Malik Sabourin-Danglade. FS’s star receiver was simply too fast and too agile for any defender to be able to cover him or tackle him. Every time Sabourin-Danglade got the ball in his hands, you felt as if something electric was about to happen. He is so quick and shifty that he is nearly impossible to tackle. He used that unique skill set to tally 153 receiving yards over eight receptions. When Flight School were in the red zone and looking for the score, they automatically turned to their tallest receiver, Jayden Michel. Michel towers over the other players. He would not look out of place in Bantam or even Midget. Both of his catches were touchdown grabs that he plucked out of the air where only he could reach.

Flight School’s season was filled with ups and downs. It did not always look like this team was going to be able to win the championship. However, when the players think back on this season, they will not remember the losses to the Gladiators, they’ll remember hoisting the trophy.

Bantam: I was just talking about how teams generally take a conservative approach in the finals. Well, Flight School and the LCC Lions also threw that modo out the window in the Bantam championship. Flight School scored at will in this one and went on to win 47-26 over the Lions. Even though the score indicates a blowout, this game was not decided until the dying minutes. Every time Flight School seemed to be pulling ahead, the Lions would either pick their opponents off or score a 40 yard touchdown.

The turning point in this game was a 40 yard touchdown pass to Antwan Raymond halfway through the second half. Up until that play, Flight School had ran the ball with Raymond on the first play of every drive. After three consecutive drives with Raymond running the ball on first down, the Lions defenders were conditioned to jump the run. When Flight School faked the handoff and sent Raymond on a deep fly, all of the Lions defenders were caught flat footed. Raymond hauled in the 40-yard touchdown pass and Flight School did not look back.

While Flight School did not play their best game of the season, they did enough to win this one and secure the championship. The driving force behind that championship was Evans Chuba. He passed for nearly 300 yards and six touchdowns in this one. Even if he turned the ball over a few times, the Lions could not keep pace with Flight School’s high-octane offence.

Midget: I could not have been more wrong in my last article. I predicted a final between La Belle Province and the Raiders. Both of those teams lost in the semi-finals. In one of the most shocking matches of the season, the Unicorns handed La Belle Province their first loss of the season. The Unicorns defence held La Belle Province to only one score. The key to their success was dropping three defenders deep on each play. La Belle Province kept on trying to force the ball deep and they kept getting picked off. The Unicorns intercepted their opponents four times and that was enough to secure the 14-10 victory and their seat in the finals.

The other semi-final was also a close affair, but it was a much higher scoring game. While North Shore only threw for 110 yards and three touchdowns, they found other ways to score. Carter Soles returned an interception for six while Kaelen Trepanier scored two rushing touchdowns. They booked their seat to the finals with a 40-37 win.

In the finals versus the Unicorns, North Shore won thanks to the safe play of their quarterbacks. They did not turn the ball over a single time in this 26-18 win over the Unicorns. North Shore started the game with Marco Gentile under center. While he did not throw for any touchdowns, he scored off of a 27-yard run on his opening drive to give North Shore the lead. A few drives later, the Unicorns drew level with a four yard touchdown pass from Tristan Langlais to Noah Roy. As soon as the Unicorns drew level, North Shore decided to put Kaelan Trepanier in at quarterback. He made an immediate impact. On his first drive, he slowly but surely marched down the field and capped that drive off with a touchdown pass to Carter Soles. Right before the half, the Unicorns drew level thanks to a 24 yard grab by Sebastien Langlais. The Unicorns started the 2nd half with the ball and critically, North Shore were able to stop them. Trepanier went back to work on the very next drive and once again gave his team the lead thanks to a 6 yard pass to Ben Tudu. On their next drive, the Unicorns were intercepted by Trenton Sheppard and that really sealed the deal in this one. Trepanier would scamper into the endzone on the next drive to give North Shore an insurmountable two score lead. They would see out that lead to win 26-18.

With that, the winter 2020 FPF Junior season is officially in the books! I hope you all enjoyed your experience in the league as well as the articles. If you have any recommendations for future articles, please let me know at [email protected]

While the season may be over, it is now award season. Stay tuned to the FPF website because the Dubois awards will be coming out shortly.