ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF
MISSISSAUGA– Were one week into training camp and it’s about that time to determine who has been paying attention. Given the rain that has riddled the UTM upper field the past few days, the game was moved to the turf field of Nelson high school in Burlington.
Before getting to the game, the team went through a few special team drills and walk through’s; then it was game time.
Ricky Ray lead the way for the first team on offence. With Andre Durie, Maurice Mann and Jason Barnes sitting this one out, it was interesting to see which receivers took the field with the starting QB. Chad Owens and Spencer Watt were there, and joining them were rookies Dontrelle Inman and Patrick Carter. Cory Boyd rounded out the first unit, and on the line Wayne Smith was protecting Ray’s blindside at left tackle.
Boyd was quick to make an impact. After a run and a couple of catches he brought the offence to the 2 yard line. After a couple of stops from the defence, recent standout Dontrelle Inman caught the first TD of the day. Ray threw the ball up around the 7 yard line, and it was Inman’s responsibility to beat the defensive back to the endzone and go up to get it. Beautiful play all around.
On the first unit of defence, birthday boy Ricky Foley joined Kevin Huntley, Ronald Flemons and Claude Wroten on the line, while Brandon Isaac was at the Sam linebacker spot and Jordan Younger was slotted in his newly assigned Free Safety spot.
About 20 minutes into play, Inman made another spectacular play. Ricky Ray once again put the rookie in a position to make a play, and Inman made a beautiful diving grab easily 40 yards down the field. Not to be outdone, Chad Owens made a great one-handed diving catch a couple of plays later to bring the ball to the 3 yard line.
Cory Boyd was impressive every time he hit the field. Boyd dropped around 10 pounds during the off-season, and he looked very quick. He grabbed the second TD of the day on a screen pass from Ray. Boyd made a few players miss before diving into the endzone.
Don’t try and tell these players it’s only a mock game.
Ricky Ray continued to show why Argos fans are giddy to have him in Double Blue. His third TD pass of the day seemingly fell into Patrick Carter’s hands in the endzone. Even Maurice Mann couldn’t believe it from the sidelines: “Oh man…Ricky Ray” is all he could say, while shaking his head with a smile on his face.
Towards the end of the day Ray connected for his fourth TD of the day. This time Samie Parker took advantage of one of Ricky’s perfect throws as he was in full stride.
After the score, the offence went for two; Ray threw a jump ball to the corner of the endzone towards Inman that was swatted away by fellow rookie Pacino Horne on a magnificent play.
There was one play that had nothing to do with the result of the game, but was still nonetheless impressive. Linebacker Anthony Cannon lined up in front of Chad Owens at the line of scrimmage; no easy task. Cannon took the challenge, and went stride for stride with the “flyin’ hawaiian” nearly 30 yards downfield.
Ronald Flemons also had a strong outing, swatting a Ricky Ray pass out of the air early on to end a drive. A few plays later, the same result: Flemons knocked another Ray pass down at the line of scrimmage. Flemons then decided to share the love, swatting down a pass from Jarious Jackson a little bit further into the game.
It’s back to the grind tomorrow, as the boatmen hit the turf at Holy Trinity High School in Oakville at 1:00pm.