The game-breakers have certainly been highlighted, front and centre, as the Sudbury U16 and U18 Jr Spartans compiled identical records of 5-1 in OSFL (Ontario Summer Football League) action, preparing for a tough regular season finale double-header in Sault Ste Marie this Saturday.

One need look no further than the scoresheet from each game or the offensive stats sheets to find a boatload of names jumping off the page with numbers that are more than a little impressive.

But as any good football coach will tell you, none of this happens without the benefit of a rock-solid offensive line, with both Sudbury teams blessed with five man units who can more than hold their own against some of the best defensive dynamos in the province.

Chat with these young men of imposing girth for a minute or two and you quickly come to realize that a handful of key factors are at play in developing their excellence, ranging from raw strength and skill to a much more thorough technical approach than most ever imagine.

And then there is that fundamental mindset that sets these warriors of the gridiron apart, an appreciation for the every play battles that transpire in the trenches and their deeply rooted desire to prevail every time.

“If you are playing D line or O line, the goal is to embarrass the guy in front of you,” said 19 year old Braxton Clarke, quite candidly. “You need to want to bully kids, making it difficult for them to have a good game.”

“I am really good at flipping the switch when I play football.”

Which is to say that the young man who was born in Newfoundland, moved briefly to Sudbury and was subsequently introduced to football during a stretch of time the family spent in Barrie before returning north is not a bully by nature.

Unless you happen to threaten his quarterback or running backs.

“I don’t want nobody beating me,” he stressed. “There is nothing better than having a blitzing linebacker and I stone-cold lay him out and he’s on his back. They think they’re going to get through and you stonewall them.”

With three years of OSFL experience with the Huronia Stallions under his belt, the recent graduate of Confederation Secondary was thrilled with the volume of attention and detail that is devoted to football in Sudbury.

“They take football really seriously here,” said Clarke.

Even more so when the opponent is none other than the Soo Steelers.

“The guys have been talking about this (rivalry) during practices in the bye week,” said Clarke, who noted that there is a more intense disdain in place with northern bragging rights on the line than there was for a huge win over Huronia earlier this year – even though the Stallions have often held the upper hand on the Spartans.

Ironically, Clarke will be joined by both Jaden Brennen and Kiki Olufowobi with the Sault College Cougars in their inaugural season of OFC (Ontario Football Conference) play this fall.

Time will tell if this is a path that Jack Moggy will follow.

A 15 year-old grade ten student at Lo-Ellen Park, the first year Jr Spartan has equipped coaches J.J. McKnight (offensive line coach) and Dan Yoisten (head coach) of the U16 squad with a great deal of versatility on the line.

Playing varsity football with the Knights in grade nine, Moggy kicked off the season as a guard but was moved to centre, coach Alex Vendramin suggesting his build was ideal for the key role in the middle of the unit.

With Lo-Ellen fielding a junior team last fall, Moggy transitioned across the line to defensive tackle but is back on the opposite side this summer, suiting up as a guard for all six games to date but looking at a move to centre as an injury replacement versus the Soo.

Bottom-line is that each and every positional stop has helped in his progression, even when Moggy flipped from blocker to rusher and tackler a few months back. “I was playing a position that I go up against now, so it helped me learn a lot about what they (defensive linemen) like to do against O linemen,” he stated.

“I find it easier to defend the pass rush because I know what they are trying to do. I know those first few steps, I know what it looks like so it’s easier for me to handle.”

That’s a good thing because when you pile on the responsibility of safely navigating the snap to the quarterback on every single play, the truth is that there is a whole lot going on at centre.

“My coaches always tell me: snap first,” said Moggy. “Read the linebackers, read the D line – but your snap comes first. You always think about that snap before everything else.”

Hard to overstate just how much progress that Moggy and the balance of the Sudbury U16 offensive line have displayed, their team averaging exactly 37 points per game in stringing together their current four-game winning streak.

For as much as each must tend to their individual task at hand, it is the interconnectivity of the quintet that is critical.

“In high-school football, you can get by with maybe one or two guys off doing their own thing,” said Moggy. “But when you have the best of the best together and you are playing better teams, you need to be synched. You need to have good people around you for those plays to work out.”

And when the do, Jr Spartans’ running backs are most often leaving defenders in a pile of dust – led by OFSAA gold medal track star Levi Blouin. “If the offensive line and I are doing our part, Levi will play his part in getting us touchdowns,” said Moggy.

One simply does not happen without the other.