Photo courtesy of Sault Ste. Marie College

The Ontario Conference regular season came to an end this weekend and the playoff picture became clear.

Sault Ste. Marie Cougars 56
Quinte Skyhawks 14

With the win the Cougars capture their first playoff berth in their inaugural season and will be the fourth seed heading into this weekend’s semifinal in Windsor.

Saturday, the Cougars took control almost immediately.  After stopping the Skyhawks on the game’s opening drive, the special teams went to work.  Jaiden Trudeau returned the punt 77-yards for a touchdown to set the tone and the Cougars cruised to a lopsided win.

Offensively quarterback Gabe Barkley threw for 169 yards and a touchdown to Afonso Kiala.  Receiver Marcus Williams also threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Kiala on a trick play to keep the Skyhawks defence guessing.   The Cougars offence tallied three touchdowns on the ground as Ethan Carchidi scored a pair and Sam Mustaspha had the other.

Even the defence got in on the scoring when Daikaden Gauthier intercepted a pass and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown.   In all, the defence forced an eye-popping nine turnovers.

The Skyhawks struggled to move the ball on the offensive side. Their lone offensive touchdown came on a Jake Venditti 60-yard run in the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach.   Their defence scored their first touchdown in the second quarter on a Cameron Wright 29-yard pick six.

The Cougars (4-4) will head to St. Clair to meet the Saints (8-0) on Saturday afternoon for a semifinal.  With the loss the Skyhawks (3-5) season ends, and they begin the process to retool for next year.

London Beefeaters 52
Ottawa Sooners 7

The Beefeaters victory allows them to clinch the second seed in the Conference and a home playoff date, set for this coming weekend.

They blasted out of the gate scoring 23 points in the first quarter to set the tone, predominantly using the ground game. Zach Delwo was outstanding chewing up 145 yards on 19 carries. Once getting close to the endzone the Beefs saw touchdowns from Xavier Zatylny, Ethan Grant and Wes Schneider. Quarterback DJ Fonti only completed six passes but two of them were for touchdowns, finding Seth Raymer and Brandon Visouvath.

Defensively they held the Sooners to 29-net offensive yards and shut them out for three quarters. They forced four turnovers with Sam Fediya intercepting two passes, including a 40-yard pick-six.

The lone Sooners score was a 36-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by Ayman Raheem in the fourth quarter.

This coming Saturday afternoon the Beefeaters (6-2) will host the Hamilton Hurricanes (6-2) in a semi-final with winner advancing to the Teddy Morris championship game.  The Sooners (1-7) will head back to the drawing board and look to improve heading in 2026.

Hamilton Hurricanes 46
GTA Grizzlies 6

The Hurricanes win their sixth game of the season and finish as the third seed in the Conference heading into the postseason this weekend.

They scored 21-first quarter points and had little trouble containing the Grizzlies the entire game.   Two quarterbacks combined for 302 yards and four touchdowns on just 13 completions as both Zach and Robbie Pereira each hauled in two touchdowns.

The defence not only held the Grizzlies in check all game, but defensive back Janal Williams also scored courtesy of a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown.

With the win, the Hurricanes (6-2) finish with an identical record to the London Beefeaters (6-2), but the Beefs hold the tiebreaker after winning their only meeting of the season.  Therefore, the Hurricanes will travel to London for Saturday’s playoff game.  The Grizzlies (0-8) season ends without a win.