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Lancers hold off Golden Hawks in historic football final

The Ursuline Lancers ended their championship drought with a historic win.

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The Ursuline Lancers ended their championship drought with a historic win.

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The Lancers became the first Chatham school to claim the overall LKSSAA senior football title with a 34-14 victory over the Chatham-Kent Golden Hawks on Saturday at Ursuline.

Both Chatham schools were unbeaten this season against their Sarnia rivals.

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“It’s been a great year for the South,” Lancers head coach Scott Morkin said. “Let it be known that Chatham went 10-0 against the two Sarnia teams. I don’t know if it’s going to be the trend, but the talent is in our city right now, for sure. The talent is certainly in our city for the next two years.”

Northern and St. Patrick’s from Sarnia won the first five championships after the Lambton Kent Secondary Schools’ Athletic Association was formed in 2014.

The Lancers’ championship is their first since they won the former Kent County Secondary Schools’ Athletic Association title in 2010.

“It’s like a monkey coming off your back,” said Lancers linebacker and kicker Cam Creechan, who had 16 points. “It’s definitely a good feeling.”

Darion Bacik-Hadden scored two rushing touchdowns for the unbeaten Lancers and Ben Barnard added one.

Bacik-Hadden also set an Ursuline championship-game record with 212 yards on 11 carries.

Barnard had 115 of the Lancers’ 350 rushing yards.

“That’s expected from us,” Bacik-Hadden said. “We always run the ball hard. We always get the odd throw in there, which is good. We have a good quarterback (Evan Torres) to throw the rock. Great O line.”

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The Golden Hawks are runners-up for the second straight year and third time in five years.

“Tip our hats to UCC,” Golden Hawks quarterback Ethan Jordan said. “They went undefeated. Got to tip your hat, but we had a good season, too.”

The Golden Hawks struck first on Jordan’s four-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter.

“We came out the way we wanted to,” he said. “No fear, coming out hard, take the first swing of the fight.”

Bacik-Hadden replied late in the quarter with a four-yard TD run. Creechan kicked the extra point.

Creechan kicked field goals of 31, 46 and 42 yards in the second quarter and added two rouges for an 18-6 halftime lead.

The Lancers’ defence calmed down after being too riled up on the opening drive, he said.

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“We’re a very physical team,” Creechan said. “We’re very up-in-your-face. We tackle very well, so after the first drive we just started tackling a lot better and then they didn’t get a lot of yardage after that.”

The Lancers’ offence is just as physical, Bacik-Hadden said.

“We love hitting,” he said. “We love banging heads with everyone. We want to see who’s the hardest hitter on this team every week and we get a new guy every week.”

The Golden Hawks’ offence came to life in the third quarter. Ryan Middleton scored on a 52-yard run up the middle with 43 seconds left and Isaac DaSilva kicked the extra point.

“We switched up our running game a little bit,” Jordan said. “They did some things on their ‘D’ line that threw us off in the first half. We came back firing. We figured it out at halftime and switched it up and got that long run.”

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A single on the ensuing kickoff cut the Lancers’ lead to 18-14, but Bacik-Hadden answered with a 63-yard run on the next play from scrimmage.

“It’s confidence,” Bacik-Hadden said. “That’s what we always bring. We always bring confidence to the game and I said, ‘Listen, we’ve got to step up.’ They thought they had it. No, we always step up.

“We always come bigger, faster, stronger and we just took it over. They put it in my hands and I did the job for our team.”

He ended the drive with an eight-yard TD run.

Barnard scored on a late 25-yard run.

Connor Wright of the Lancers made 10 tackles, Trevor Lawton made eight, Lucas Doyle had seven and a fumble recovery, and Christian Heuvelmans also recovered a fumble.

Garrette Stonefish, Cohen Richmond, Alex Vankesteren and Jacob Graham led the Hawks’ defence.

Middleton rushed for 102 yards, Stonefish had 57 and Jordan added 35.

Ursuline will visit Windsor for the SWOSSAA final Tuesday, Nov. 19, against either Herman or Holy Names.

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