Third time the charm for Beefeaters?
They lost the first two matchups. But a win against the St. Clair Saints Saturday would crown the London Beefeaters OFC champs. Can they get it done on the road?
Geoff Clubine had a huge game in the Beefeaters’ 50-7 win over Hamilton in their OFC semi-final, amassing 216 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns. (Photo: Owen Price Photography)
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They’re certainly no strangers.
For the fourth season in a row, the St. Clair Saints and London Beefeaters will meet in the Ontario Football Conference (OFC) championship game this fall. The stage is set: It’ll be a 7:00pm contest, under the lights, at Acumen Stadium in Windsor.
As has become tradition, St. Clair will host the league title game, as the perennial powerhouse Saints have been on a real roll in recent years, regularly finishing in top spot during the regular season. This year, they ran the table for a perfect 8-0 record. Two more playoff wins has them at 10-0 heading into Saturday’s Ontario final.
And the Beefeaters? Now 8-2 overall this year after a 50-7 trouncing of the Hamilton Hurricanes in their semi-final last weekend, they’re hoping to pull off an upset against the Saints – something the club did back in 2021 when they reached the Canadian Bowl for the first time in franchise history (they lost that national final, at home at Western Alumni Stadium, to the Langley Rams).
It would be an upset, yes. The Saints are undefeated, after all, and they beat London in both regular season matchups between the teams earlier this year. But not much separates these teams, and both clubs are anticipating a close, competitive final.
“They’re a very talented team. They have really good players, and they’re very well-coached,” Beefeaters head coach Matt Snyder told Gameday London. “They make plays when plays need to be made. And that’s going to be key for us. We have to make some plays this week that maybe we missed the first couple times we played them.”
Those contests were, first, a 33-17 loss at home. And then a very close 40-36 defeat in Windsor, a game that came down to the final possession.
“It was close, and we had our chance to win it,” said Snyder. “We had two throws in the endzone in the last minute. We dropped one and one got deflected. So, we were right there.”
In that latter contest, London led 36-33 after three quarters. On the day, their offense amassed 512 total yards. Their defense allowed 493 total yards. It was a close, competitive game. And that’s what’s expected from Saturday’s Final.
(Photo: Owen Price Photography).
As they have all season, the Beefeaters’ running back duo of LJ Dyer and Geoff Clubine had strong games against the Saints in that narrow loss back on Sept. 2. Dyer, who set a new franchise single season rushing record (1,158 yards) this year, ran for 140 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Clubine tallied 141 yards on 13 carries.
In last week’s semi, Clubine exploded for 216 yards against the Hurricanes, including an 89-yard touchdown run. He scored twice on the day, while Dyer, who ran for 84 yards, had three rushing scores in the win.
That’ll be the strategy in the OFC Final, as it has been all season for the Beefeaters, whose 1-2 running back punch helped the team set a new league single season rushing mark (2,733 yards), which had been in place since 1969.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that we’re a team that wants to run the ball,” said Snyder. “We have a great offensive line that has a system they’ve been running since January – and for a lot of these guys, much longer than that.
“We’re not doing anything that’s different than what a lot of people in London do. There’s some continuity there. A kid comes into our system and we’re like, ‘Alright, we’re going to run this play.’ And that kid goes, ‘Okay, I’ve already run that play with the Jr. Mustangs, and we ran that play in high school.’ So, they already know the basics of it.”
And then it’s about practice, practice, practice.
“You run a play 2,500 times from January to October, you’re going to get pretty good at it. Or at least you’re going to get pretty comfortable with it,” added Snyder. “Look at LJ Dyer. I coached him in high school before the Beefeaters. I can think of a couple plays we run that he’s probably run 10,000 times in his life. So, he’s got a mastery of that play at this point.”
In other words, the London Beefeaters are preparing for the OFC Final game in the same way they’ve prepared for each and every game this season. Snyder preaches routine, regardless of what opponent lies ahead. It’s about working to their own strengths and weaknesses, he says, rather than changing game plans and overthinking things.
“This is something I learned from my time at Western with coach [Greg] Marshall. If you keep everything routine and the same, you don’t have to make changes when you get into big games.”
As it pertains to St. Clair, Snyder says, London has been preparing for them all season. Because it’s expected they’ll have to play them in a big game come playoffs, the Beefeaters’ systems are set up in a way to prepare for that very scenario.
“You look at your toughest teams and you have to be able to do stuff against them because you know you’re going to eventually play them,” the coach said. “The types of coverages we play, how we run the ball on offense … I think it’s all designed in a way to beat a team at the end of the season – in a cold weather game, probably at night. That has helped in our preparation for (the OFC Final).”
There will be no shortage on the field at Acumen Stadium this weekend. The Saints had 10 players named league all-stars last week. The Beefeaters, meanwhile, had six players earn the honour, including LT Jared Balsaz, SB Jagger Horst, RB LJ Dyer, C Kevin Ricard, DK N’kosi Stewart and FS/CB Drew Lawrence.
(Photo: Owen Price Photography).
With so much of the offense focused on the ground game, Horst doesn’t see a ton of action, but he’s certainly the top target for Beefeaters quarterbacks. The receiver hauled in 21 passes for a team-high 344 yards in seven regular season games.
At quarterback, George Denniss has seen the most action under centre for London. He started five games during the regular campaign, completing 32-of-58 pass attempts (55%), recording four touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran for 231 yards and three touchdowns on 26 attempts.
The Beefeaters’ other notable strength? Their defensive line, which will make St. Clair work for everything on offense this weekend. N’kosi Stewart led the team during the regular season with 24 total tackles, followed by Dylan Roberts (23) and Logan Clyde (22). Drew Lawrence had a team-high two interceptions.
“We’re very healthy right now, and we feel like we’re peaking at the best time to peak for a football team,” said Snyder. “I feel like we have everything we need to win right now, so we’re excited to play.”
The winner of Saturday’s OFC Final will advance to play a Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) semi-final game against the winner of the Prairies Conference. That game would also be on the road for London.
“We don’t worry about that. We’ll play anywhere. We’ll play in a parking lot,” Snyder said with a laugh. “Our guys just want to play football. I hope Saturday’s game is a great, competitive game against St. Clair, and hopefully things go well and the Beefeaters come out on top.”
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