Fratmen shocked when mistakes open door for Beefeaters to secure OFC title

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It was an absolutely impressive turn of events for the St. Clair Fratmen.

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Slowly building a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Ontario Football Conference championship at Acumen Stadium, the Fratmen saw what appeared to be a sure title performance disappear in the final three minutes.

Two St. Clair blunders turned the tide in the closing minutes as the London Beefeaters rallied for a second straight title by hitting a rouge as time expired to take the game 15-14.

“The word crazy keeps coming to mind because of how quickly it got away from us,” said Fratmen quarterback Michael Beale. “It has crossed my head 100 times.”

This was a Fratmen team that hadn’t been left behind in 10 games this season before the Beefeaters hit the winning rouge when time expired.

“Never in a million years did I think of a team that was never behind a second the entire season and would not win it,” said St. Clair head coach Mike LaChance. “It’s amazing.”

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St. Clair’s powerful offense, which had averaged nearly 54 points per game before Saturday’s final, was limited to a single field goal in the first half for a 3-0 lead at halftime.

“It was the best game we’ve played all year defensively,” LaChance said. “On offense, we put points on the board, but we lost three touchdowns and we missed two field goals or we won that one by walking away.

Two safeties conceded by London, the second with 2:52 remaining in regulation, along with a four-yard touchdown pass from Beale to Dante Lewis, saw the Fratmen win the OFC title for the first time since 2018.

“This one hurts more than any other in my 18 years and I’ve had some hard times,” LaChance said. “This one hurts for sure.

“At home, freshman year at university and I know how much the university wanted to organize a national championship. I know in the year of COVID how much the players and coaches invested ”.

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London recovered a blow over the punter’s head in the end zone to make it a one-score game. On the kickoff that followed, the Fratmen dropped the ball and the Beefeaters scored a 41-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14 in the final minute.

St. Clair couldn’t move the ball into his final possession and London would be in a position to punch an end point to win it when time expired and advance to the national championship game.

“I definitely think we needed to play a more complete game,” Beale said. “At the beginning, we did not get into rhythm (on offense) and it was only 3-0 in the middle. We were more desperate in the second half, but in the end we have to finish and we don’t finish.

“It just shows that you can have all the accolades of the regular season and it can be taken away from you. I feel bad for many of our older boys. A guy like me, it was just my freshman year, and unfortunately my last, but there are some seniors in their junior or senior year who didn’t get a chance to win it in their senior year and came off the field on a high note. . “

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