London Beefeaters @ St. Clair Saints – Saturday October 26, 7:00pm – Acumen Stadium | WATCH HERE
They are a pair of familiar foes meeting for the Ontario Conference Teddy Morris championship for the fourth consecutive season.
The Saints have been a dominating force this year with an unblemished record and defeated the Ottawa Sooners last week in a semi-final. In two games with the Beefeaters during the regular season they outscored them 105-7 including an impressive 68-0 shutout in their last meeting at St. Clair last month.
Their offence was been incredible led by All-Star quarterback Maurice Sodja who has proved he can beat teams with his arm, as well as his legs, averaging almost 300 yards on his own each game. Sodja has a cast of dangerous weapons surrounding him with All-Star running back MJ Doyle-Marshall on the ground and All-Star receivers Darius France and Cameron St. Kitts-Park catching passes, chewing up yards after the catch.
Over on the defensive side the Saints have been equally dominating holding teams to under five points a game and tallied four shutouts, one against the Beefeaters. They are littered with stars on the defensive side including lineman Jaylin Burnett the Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
Moving the football is going to be a challenge for the Beefeaters, but they do have the personnel able to punch some holes in the Saints defensive armour. All-Star running back LJ Dyer continues to be a major impact player for this club and is coming off an outstanding semi-final win over Quinte. He rushed for 103 yards on 14 carries and scored three touchdowns.
Speaking of that win over the Skyhawks, the Beefeaters ran win gaining 312 yards on the ground alone. This needs to be a major piece of their attack against the Saints so that the run game to set up the pass.
Quarterback Brody Fairbairn is going to have to be a factor in this game as the Saints will no doubt key on Dyer. Fairbairn is a mobile quarterback using his legs to keep drives going or he can get out of trouble and will need to get the ball out quickly with short passes to keep the Saints defensive rush at bay.
The Beefeaters defence is solid but the Saints offence can create match-up issues. Winning the turnover battle will be essential for their success and limit the Saints sustained drives.
Injuries could come into play as some of the Saints All-Stars were injured during their semi-final victory last weekend and could miss the championship game. Some of them could be game time decisions.
There is plenty on the line in this game as the winner will host the 2024 Canadian Bowl on November 9th. The Beefeaters last hosted the national championship in 2021 while the Saints last hosted in 2017.