The Titans gave first-year Oakville Minor Football its first championship Saturday in Hamilton, downing the Hamilton Steel City Steelers 35-28 to claim the South Central Ontario Football League AAA title.

It was the first win over the Stamps, 32-22 on Canada Day weekend, that made the Titans realize they were for real, according to Oakville head coach Joe Moscato.

“Oakville kids kind of have a fear factor when it comes to the Burlington teams,” said Moscato, referring to Burlington’s dominance of Halton high school football over the years. “Once you beat a Burlington team, you start to realize you can, and once you start to realize you can, you start to believe. We gained some confidence from that victory and it just snowballed from there.”

Perhaps the Titans leaned on that confidence in Saturday’s final, which could not have started much worse for Oakville.

The Titans paid the price for some turnovers in the first quarter, allowing Hamilton to jump out to a 14-0 lead. Oakville roared right back, however, scoring three touchdowns before halftime to take a 21-14 lead and then swelling its advantage to 35-21 before the Steelers made things close again with a late score.

Oakville, which racked up 244 rushing yards on the day, managed to run out the clock to end the game.

“It’s tremendous,” said OMF president Bob Hall. “It’s quite an accomplishment for the team in its first year.”

Hall credited the Titans coaching staff for much of the team’s success, particularly Moscato.

Recruitment of players for the team was going slowly last winter until Moscato, who played NCAA Division 1 football at Northern Illinois University in the early 1990s and is quickly building a strong football tradition at Holy Trinity, decided to coach the junior varsity Titans.

“Once Joe joined as our head coach, the floodgates of kids started. Not just players from Holy Trinity, but kids who had played for him two years ago (with the Halton Invictas),” Hall said. “We got a lot of players from Abbey Park, Blakelock, Iroquois Ridge... we saw the talent that came from all of Oakville, and I think we knew at that point we had something.

“(Joe) gets a tremendous amount of respect. He’s a disciplinarian, but he makes it fun too. He gets to know the kids on a level that not many coaches do.”

Moscato even lent his shoes Saturday to lineman Erik Luciano after Luciano’s cleats were deemed illegal by officials in the fourth quarter.

Ashton Rochester led the way offensively for Oakville in the league final, running for three touchdowns. Zack Secord accounted for the Titans’ other two majors, and Kyle Sanson was successful on all five converts.

Quarterback Fabian Desantis was good on five of 11 pass attempts for 167 yards.

Meanwhile, anchored by middle linebacker Te Nguyen, the Oakville defence held the Steelers to less than 100 rushing yards. The Titans also forced five Hamilton turnovers, including interceptions by Ford Simpson, Michael Sparling and Aaron Jervis. Nicholas Uleryk- Carvalho and Matt Toppan recovered Hamilton fumbles.

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Oakville Junior Varsity Titans

2009 South Central Ontario Football League champions

A. J. Singh, Ryan O’Leary, Te Nguyen, Frank Simone, Artem Clement, Aaron Jervis, Eric Manning, Fabian Desantis, Jake Cussen, Ashton Rochester, Nicholas Uleryk-Carvalho, Mitchell Sadowski, Justin Godberson, Wayne Doyley, Alex Sipos, Ford Simpson, Michael Sparling, Shaka Fonderson, Evan Carr-Hall, Zack Secord, Erik Luciano, Christopher Cipolla, Matt Toppen, Cole Munden, Matt Hamel, Spencer Creed, Tim O’Shaughnessy, Kyle Sanson, Daniel Stephenson, Brett Blaszko, Kaleb Sang, Taha Abukar, Matt Thomson, Nicholas Allen

STAFF: Joe Moscato, Sean Gow, Kyle Bristo, Jordan Symonds, Vince Luciani, Rob Birtles, Brendan Bird, Tom Young, Craig Sanson