The Eastview Wildcats senior football team narrowly held onto an early lead against the Innisdale Invaders, but they pulled out the win and have secured a spot in the upcoming Simcoe County Athletic Association (SCAA) semifinals.
The Wildcats beat the Invaders, 13-8, on a cold and snowy Wednesday afternoon at Georgian College's J.C. Massie Field in Barrie in a battle between crosstown rivals.
Innisdale, down 13-1 at the half, tried to pull themselves back into the game by capitalizing on several turnovers by Eastview.
But in the end, the clock was the Invaders' worst enemy as they ran out of time with momentum on their side.
After the game, Eastview head coach Tom Fontaine said his Wildcats were lucky to come away with a victory and keep their season alive.
“Innisdale is tough, they made it hard on us,” he said on the sidelines. “The conditions were a little bit hard for us to handle, but some of our fourth-year guys came through and made the plays that we needed.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we feel fortunate to be moving on,” he added.
Looking ahead to Monday's semifinal game against the Barrie North Vikings, who demolished the Maple Ridge Ravens varsity squad by a score of 58-0 earlier in the afternoon, Fontaine thinks it will be much the same — cold, along with mud. And they won’t have the luxury of playing on artificial turf as they did in Wednesday's game.
“We’re going to have to figure out a way, in the next few days, to manage these conditions a little bit better,” he said.
Eastview will now take on Barrie North on Monday, Nov. 6 at 11 a.m., at a site to be determined.
The winner of the Orillia-Collingwood game will play the first-place Bear Creek Kodiaks on Monday at 2:30 p.m. at Maple Ridge Secondary School in the city's south end. No score was available for that game, however.
And there won't be much time to prepare for the SCAA senior final, which is set for Friday, Nov. 10 starting at 11 a.m. at Maple Ridge.
The winner of that game advances to the Georgian Bay Secondary School Association (GBSSA) title game versus the champion from the Catholic School Athletics of Simcoe County (CSASC) at Georgian College's J.C. Massie Field on Wednesday, Nov. 15 beginning at 5 p.m.
