Football Start 2025 Season by Dominating Quinte 56-1
Belleville, ON – The St. Clair Saints Football team started their 2025 season and CJFL National Championship title defense with a dominant 56-1 win over the Quinte Skyhawks in Belleville on Saturday.
The Saints put up four majors in the opening quarter for a 28-0 lead which included a 24-yard scamper by running back MJ Doyle-Marshall (Airdrie, AB) four minutes into the contest. St. Clair quarterback Matthew Guenette (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) then had three strikes for touchdowns starting with a 16-yard connection with Cameron St. Kitts-Park (Oshawa, ON). Guenette then hit Jayden Shallow for a 20-yard score followed by a 45-yarder to Keyanni Elliott (Windsor, ON). Joe Newton-Grain (Bristol, England) extended the lead booting a 31-yard field goal late in the second quarter and putting his team ahead 31-0 at halftime.
Quinte managed single point on a punt into the endzone in the third quarter but then conceded a safety making it 33-1 heading to the fourth.
Midway through the fourth quarter backup St. Clair quarterback Quinn O'Billovich (Oakville, ON) linked up with Shallow for his second score of the game on a 20-yard touchdown. Quinte conceded another safety and then defensive back Donavyn Osman (Windsor, ON/Herman) picked off an errant pass and raced into the endzone for a 19-yard pick-six. St. Clair running back Nicholas Thomas (Brampton, ON/St. Roch) plunged in endzone from 1-yard out for the last major of the game.
Defensive Lineman Jaylin Burnett (South St. Paul, Minnesota) led St. Clair with 11 defensive points including two tackles for loss and a sack which limited Quinte overall to 46 yards rushing and 41 yards passing but forced them back with 49 lost yards.
Guennette's three touchdown marks were part of his 243 yards in the air on 20-of-23 passing to go with 18 yards on the ground for St. Clair. Doyle-Marshall finished with 87 yards out of the backfield for the Saints while Elliott was the high pass catcher with 8 grabs for 102 yards. Shallow caught 5 passes for 92 yards while St. Kitts-Park had 6 catches and 90 yards for St. Clair.
Newton-Grain finished with five converts and Talon Sajkovski (Kitchener, ON/Grand River Collegiate) converted two other majors for the Saints.
St. Clair will be on the road again this week in Ottawa to face the Sooners on Saturday who are 0-1 on the season after opening with 19-6 loss to London.