#10 IMG faced West Toronto Prep Friday and the game went viral on social media as IMG put up 96 first half points in route to a mercy rule 96-0 win. IMG lead after the first 57-0 and put up 39 points in the 2nd quarter in route to the win, but offense wasn't the big part of the game for the Ascenders. The IMG defense had 4 TDs and forced 3 safeties mainly because of bad snaps. West Toronto's center and long snapper, fired bad snaps that turned into safeties, TDs and turnovers. On the offensive side for the Ascenders, Senior RB and Coastal Carolina Commit Evan Dickens had 2 TD and 4 star sophomore RB Donovan Johnson also had 2 TD. Sophomore QB Ryan Downes and 4 star junior QB Jayden Bradford fired TDs to 4 star sophomore WR and Texas A&M commit Winston Watkins Jr. 3 star senior WR Devin Hyatt had a TD reception before 4 star senior WR and Ohio State commit Carnell Tate had a screen pass reception deep in the backfield and what looked like a blown up play turned into a 45 YAC TD. Sophomore QB Nino Freeman kept it for himself and ran it in for the final TD of the game to take a 96-0 lead.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GAME PROVIDED BY PSC HIGHLIGHTS ON YOUTUBE
Sure the West Toronto Prep Golden Warriors lost 96-0, but what's their history and what makes them look like Bishop Sycamore.
#1: Weird Scheduling
First off, they are a Canadian high school football team that only play American teams, specifically in the Erie area of Pennsylvania. They played Erie High School, lost 7-0, Cathedral Prep in Erie, lost 58-6 and McDowell High School in Erie and lost 61-0. They played Gilmour Academy in Ohio and lost 14-0 and played McCallie High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and lost 55-0 before traveling to Florida to play IMG. In 2021, they played only the #4 team in the nation, Saint Frances Academy in Baltimore and lost 58-6. In 2019, they opened against Pallotti from Laurel, Maryland and lost 20-0 in the only home game the Warriors have ever had. They then faced Cathedral Prep, lost
47-12 and faced Erie and lost 22-0 before traveling to Ohio to lose 49-13 to Archbishop Hoban. They faced Brentwood Academy in Tennessee, lost 40-0, faced New Philadelphia in Ohio, lost 31-0 and went back to Erie to face McDowell and lose 42-6. They faced Harding in Warren, Ohio, lost 22-14 and to close the season out played St. Ignatius in Cleveland, losing 38-0 putting their all time record at 0-16. Throughout those 3 seasons, they've played 1 game at home, play 2 nationally top 10 ranked teams, never played a team from Canada and only played teams from Maryland, Ohio, Erie, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Florida. Odd for a team based in West Toronto to travel that far.
#2: Location
2nd off, when you look up West Toronto Prep on Google Maps, it takes you to Toronto Prep School, a private middle school and high school in Toronto home to the Spartans. The Spartans don't have a football team and play in the Toronto District Colleges Athletic Association and the Small Schools Athletic Federation. If you look on the map, you'll realize there is no such thing as West Toronto Prep. Also, High School Football in Canada is Canadian rules and fundamentals which has some differences from American High School Football such as 3 downs instead of 4, pre-snap routines, upright location and field length.
#3: Similarities to Bishop Sycamore
Bishop Sycamore was a team who last year played and lost 58-0 to IMG at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton on ESPN. The team came out in black uniforms with gray pants and numbering and black helmets with no decals. The school was fake, the team was made up of players too old to play high school who wanted a second chance at getting recruited and a coach who ended up getting himself into 3 lawsuits and a fraud investigation. West Toronto came out in more customized white uniforms with black numbering and gold outline, but had white helmets with no decals. Bishop Sycamore was a team based in Ohio and had a lot of similar opponents. In 2020, they lost to St. Ignatius in Cleveland 65-3, lost to Harding in Warren 21-9 and lost to IMG in Florida 56-6 in an 0-6 season. Other than IMG, Bishop Sycamore also faced Archbishop Hoban and lost 69-0 in route to an 0-3 season. Bishop Sycamore never had a home game, but unlike West Toronto, they focused more on Ohio. They only played out of state teams 2 times, twice against IMG and once against Sto-Rox from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. They lost 19-7. That's a lot of similarities between the two teams, but West Toronto has been doing these things more blatantly and suspicious than Bishop Sycamore did these things. With all these similarities, a person has to think there is some suspicion that West Toronto isn't who they say they are.
If West Toronto is indeed like Bishop Sycamore, ESPN should hold a bowl game to see which fraudulent team is better. It would be a good way of ending an interesting story.