Championship Semis: BIG DOGS AND BEAVERS EMERGE YET AGAIN

The 2017 AFFL Flag Bowl Championship will have a familiar look to it as old foes will collide once again.   The defending champion Big Dogs booked their sixth consecutive appearance in the Flag Bowl with a semi-final win on Sunday - and for the fourth time in the past five years they will face the Golden Beavers.


The Beavers were looking to get back to the final after being knocked out by the Agents last year - and needed to go through them again if they wanted to get back to the final.   The Agents came into the game with the top ranked offence - the Beavers boasted the #1 defence.  Something had to give - and it did.  As the old saying goes, "defence wins championships",  and the Beavers defence took that to heart, dominating the Agents offence while QB Neil Perry and the revamped Beavers offence punched the ball into the endzone when needed en route to a 25-1 win and a berth in the John Boylan Cup final.

The Big Dogs needed to get by the Untouchables to defend their title in a battle of the Dawgs #2 defence versus the Untouchables #2 offence.  Once again, the defence prevailed.

The game began with both teams feeling each other out; seemingly willing to play a field position game until something opened up. Instead of settling for an early FG, the Untouchables turned the ball over on downs when QB Trevor Wood lost his footing attempting a fake. This would prove costly as the Big Dogs put up 7 on their following two possessions via a rouge and an uncoverted major. The Untouchables responded with a FG and a missed FG their next two times down the field. With 2 plays remaining in the half, the Big Dogs Andrew Ferman broke loose in the end zone and caught a short pass to make it a two score game.

The second half was more of the same as the Dawgs defence really looked to make a statement. The Untouchables managed to find the end zone followed by a single point, but that would be it for them. Damon McLachlin caught his second TD of the game while Adam Spataro capped off the scoring with a TD catch of his own to make the final 27-10 for the Big Dogs.

So, Flag Bowl Saturday will see the Warriors play Team Green at 10 am in the Consolation Final, with the Agents and Untouchables squaring off at 12 pm in the B Final and the Big Dogs and Golden Beavers squaring off the John Boylan Cup at 2 pm on Wright Field in Alliston.