Logan Tait, Max Mynerich and Avery Mackinnon combined to run for five touchdowns as the Lively Hawks kicked off the 2026 junior high-school football season with a 47-12 win over the St Benedict Bears Thursday at the James Jerome Sports Complex.
The consistent thread in all five scampers to the end zone was a nine-athlete rotation through the quintet of offensive line assignments, with the entire group drawing the praise of Lively coaches Reg Bonin and Jordan Desilets.
"It's really fun having a bunch of guys who know what they're doing," said centre Charlie Brisson, returning this fall after suiting up at left tackle one year ago but breaking his wrist in his third game of the season.
"My two guards, Jaxon (Nootchtai-Miller) and Callum (St Jean), they helped everybody," Brisson continued.
It did not take long for the Hawks front five on offense to asset themselves as Logan Tait darted 32 yards to open the scoring less than two minutes in, with Kade Naponse converting for the first of his five successful point after attempts.
Midway through the quarter, Lively doubled their advantage when Avery Mackinnon closed out a Hawks' drive, bulldozing his way three yards into the end zone.
The score remained that way until late in the opening half when Tait broke free for a 76 yard sprint to paydirt, with the Bears replying quickly in this case. Just twenty seconds later, on the very first play from scrimmage following the kickoff, St Benedict feature back Emmanuel George raced 62 yards in near record time.
The flurry of scoring continued as Max Mynerich (37 yard run - LIV) and Emmanuel George (1 yard run - STB) traded majors, making the score 27-12 at the half. Lively closed things off with three more touchdowns in the final 20 minutes of play or so as Mynerich (3 yard run), Jacob Monahan (85 yard pass and run from QB Reid Bentley) and Jones Paajanen (42 yard punt return) put a lid on the scoring.
For his part, Charlie Brisson was more than happy to simply follow the instructions of a highly respected coaching staff in order to help his team.
"I was kind of just told: you're big; go in here," he said with a laugh. "We just try and stay in the game - don't let them get to our quarterback. Just block. If you forget the play, just run and hit somebody."
That strategy, he said, seemed to sit well with a nice array of Lively Hawks who carried the ball in game one. "I just kind of block and they're all happy with it because they don't get hit," said Brisson as his team now prepares for a week two battle with the Confederation Chargers.
That game could easily be a preview of the junior final after the Confederation Chargers bounced the Lasalle Lancers 59-20, with the Valley East school fielding a junior squad for the first time in nearly a decade.
The Confederation one-two punch of Marshal LePage (4 TDs) and Bentley Dhinel (3 TDs) led the way for the winners, with the other TD coming courtesy of Avery Gudrie (who also chipped in with a pair of two point conversions).
Camden Nadeau (two PATs), Hunter Popp (2-pt PAT) and Marshal LePage (2-pt PAT) rounded out the scoreboard blitz for Confed with Nick Rice (three touchdowns) and Carter Hill (two converts) countering for Lasalle.
In the remaining encounter on Thursday, the St Charles College Cardinals defense held the Lo-Ellen Park Knights offense scoreless for more than three quarters of play as the Cards upended the Knights 23-12.
Gaddiel Appiah-Hagan, Trent Maskevich and Ryker Leroy all recorded six point scores for SCC with Appiah-Hagan doing the rest with two converts and a rouge. Jack Hodder managed to cross the goal line twice in the final quarter of play for Lo-Ellen, with the Knights going toe to toe with the Bears this coming Thursday (September 24th) at 5:15 p.m.
