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Dec 01, 2007 04:30 AM
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David Grossman
Sports Reporter

HAMILTON–Not many football teams win games with a net offence of 17 yards.

And that's why Notre Dame Knights of Brampton, who came here yesterday hoping to advance to the Golden Horseshoe Bowl, left Ivor Wynne Stadium on the losing end of a 33-7 whipping from the host St. Thomas More Knights, the local Catholic league champs.

It was the second consecutive year that Notre Dame, the Peel Region champion, entered the Final Four with an undefeated record only to leave with bad memories.

The behemoth offensive line of St. Thomas More – the defending Golden Horseshoe Bowl champion – was a big reason the Knights of Hamilton were able to compile 363 total yards of offence while their Brampton namesakes managed only five first downs the entire game.

"It's definitely demoralizing but I told the guys there's no shame in losing to a team that's better than us and to remember that we won back-to-back league titles and not many can say they got this far," said Notre Dame head coach Dario Pretto. "This time, we were pushed around from start to finish. They thoroughly exerted their physical toughness on us on both sides of the line and we really never got offensive-minded at all."

St. Thomas More led 26-7 at halftime with Mark Woghiren running for touchdowns of 24, one and three yards.

Notre Dame tied it early in the second quarter after blocking a punt deep in the St. Thomas More end. Two plays later, Ashton Nelson caught a five-yard pass from Taylor Schroth for the TD. But Jarek Whiteman's convert proved to be Notre Dame's final point of the year.

"When it's your graduating year, this loss is pretty hard to accept," said Schroth, who was 8-of-18 for 53 yards and was intercepted three times. "They were big and blocking was our main problem – we couldn't pick up their blitzes."

St. Thomas More will meet another Hamilton school, the Bishop Ryan Celtics – 22-1 winners over Lakeshore Catholic of Port Colborne – in the Golden Horseshoe Bowl next Tuesday at Varsity Stadium.
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