Golden Eagles take a pair from La Salle as Bubba Bowl returns to Sydenham

Craig Bakay | Oct 17, 2019

Friday was a beautiful night for football in Sydenham.

So, it was only fitting that the Sydenham High School Golden Eagles would take on the La Salle Black Knights in both senior and junior action for the semi-annual Bubba Bowl, an event to pay tribute to Alex (Bubba) Turcotte, a Sydenham football player who passed away May 15, 2001 from a cardiac defect.

And no doubt Turcotte would have been proud of his Golden Eagles on this night, as the juniors won handily, 28-7 and the seniors followed suit 17-7.

It looked like La Salle might make things difficult for Sydenham early on as they marched down to seemingly score in the opening moments, only to have a touchdown called back for not having an end on their offensive line.

From then on, it was pretty much all Sydenham.

Running back Josh Bennett scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half with slotback Brennan Finucane and QB Kieren McNeely each adding single tallies. The Sydenham offence ate up a lot of the clock with a mix of runs and passes.

La Salle finally got on the board in the third quarter when quarterback Zach Flake scored and the Black Knights threatened towards the end of the game only to have promising drives snuffed out by a Darcy Jost interception and a fumble on the Sydenham goal line.

“Defensively, we have been getting our turnovers,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Ryan. “And the offense has been solid.

“We haven’t really had to make big plays on offense.”

Ryan said they had prepared quite a bit for La Salle but were somewhat surprised with what La Salle threw at them.

“Credit to La Salle,” he said. “They executed.

“We had prepared for a few things that we didn’t see and they did some things we didn’t expect.

“But our kids adjusted well.”

Ryan had high praise for all his team but said Bennett “is a grade 9 who is a heck of an athlete and very coachable.

“And Finucane was key for us last year and probably one of the best athletes in KASSAA.”

Ryan said that the Bubba Bowl doesn’t bring any extra pressure per se, but they do want to do well in it.

“There’s no pressure but it does bring extra attention,” he said. “The coaches are all from the community and it’s well attended.

“And you want to do right by his (Turcotte’s) name.”

The senior game had a little bit of extra emotion to it.

As the sun went down and the temperature began to drop, the crowd observed a moment of silence for Wayne (Rat) Latimer, whose son, Jim, is the offensive co-ordinator for the senior Golden Eagles. The elder Latimer died the day before at the age of 76.

“He was a phys. ed teacher and he coached everything (at QECVI and Sydenham) including football,” Latimer said.

When asked if he thought his father would be looking down and pleased with the results of the games, Latimer said: “I hope so.

“This makes the game a little more special. The kids have been very kind.”

As for the game itself, the final score was pretty indicative of how things went.

Whether you like offence or defence, the Golden Eagles showed plenty of both, with standout performances on both sides of the ball.

For example, defensive back Rayden Shetier had three interceptions (at key moments too) and was all over the place. Ethan Coulas also had an interception as did Justin Jones.

And on offense, running back Chad Branscombe showed off some classic skills as both a receiver and running back, scoring a TD and being a big factor in Sydenham’s ball control game.

“Ah, the Honeycomb,” said Latimer. “He’s old time . . . our go-to guy.”

Indeed, watching Branscombe going off-tackle was reminiscent of Jim Taylor or Bronco Nagurski.

“He sees the field very well,” said quarterback Jake Richards, who connected with Branscombe on a couple of long passes and also with WR Brandon Nicolson on a beauty bomb to the back of the end zone. “He (Branscombe) sees the field better than anyone I’ve ever played with.

“He’s a dual threat and goes inside and outside equally well.

“It’s not bad to share the ball a little bit with a guy like that.”

Coach Latimer, who was instrumental in the very first Bubba Bowl said they’ll keep doing it because “the kids love it.”

When asked if he remembered that first game, many years ago, with the snow blowing horizontal across the field, he said. “Like it was yesterday.”