****EDITOR'S NOTE****
ALL GAME TIMES ARE TENTATIVE AND TO BE CONFIRMED
After another successful regular season, the Lakeshore Cougars look to continue their run of recent success when they host five playoff semifinal games next weekend at the Cougars’ home den at Parc des Benevoles in Kirkland next Saturday.
The expansion Midget AAA Cougars (8-0) will take on LaSalle Saturday at 7:30 p.m., while the Bantam AAA Cougars (7-1) will host the St. Leonard Cougars Saturday at 4 p.m. The Cougars defeated the Warriors 21-10 on Oct. 8. The Bantam Cougars will look to avenge the only blemish on their record, a 34-3 loss to North Shore Lions to finish up the regular season yesterday.
“We had a tough day, but every football team has tough days. The question is, do we have the mental and physical strength to get back to work and have success? I think we do. And that starts at practice this week,” said Bantam head coach Ted Stote.
The Lakeshore Peewee AAA (8-0) squad will host the Greenfield Park Packers (5-3) Saturday at 11:30 a.m. after a regular season that saw the Cougars average 54 points per game through the regular season.
The Cougars defeated the Packers 47-32 on Sept. 25.
Head coach Glen Cooper said his team will look to tighten up all aspects of their game this week in practice before taking on the Packers. His team made a number of mistakes against the Stallions that were masked by the final score, and he hopes to iron those out this week.
“We have a lot to work on and a lot of execution we have to tighten up. We will work hard in practice this week and get that done, because practice is where games are won,” he said.
Sebastien Mari, Troy Dottin and Zack Sebestyen all scored majors in their quarterfinal as the Cougars rode a powerful running game to victory behind an offensive line led by Logan Horn, Cole Lalonde and Jeremy Tshimbalanga with help from quarterbacks Matt Cooper and Niron Sexton. Louis Mari, Zack Belval, Loic Thibault and Jeremy St-Vil all shone on defence for the Cougars Saturday. Mady Van Rees was also on the field for Lakeshore, as well as Ben Devine, who both acquitted themselves well.
The Mosquito Cougars (8-0) will also seek to continue their undefeated season when they take on the Greenfield Park Packers at 9:30 a.m. Head coach Jesse Roberts’ powerhouse squad defeated Sun Youth 61-0 last weekend.
“The kids know we have a lot of work to get done this week and we’ll take it one day at a timer, one practice at a time and continue to work on our blocking and tackling. Ball control is also really important this time of year,”Roberts said.
The Atom Cougars (7-1) will take on the Sunnybrooke Chiefs (6-3) Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
It’s merely the most recent season in a run of unprecedented success for the Cougars’ organization. The organization moved over from the Metro Montreal league in 2019 – after each of the Cougars’ age-group teams won league and playoff championships – to the Montreal Regional Football League, the Quebec Bantam Football League and the Quebec Midget Football League – and enjoyed an undefeated campaign in 2020 across its four teams that was brought to a halt thanks to government COVID-19 restrictions.
With but two regular-season losses in 2021, the Cougars are looking to get all five of its teams into playoff finals the following week – it should be an exciting day of football for spectators and the general public.
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