CAGLIARI — Max Nixon scored touchdowns on an interception return and blocked punt recovery as Canada defeated Italy 56-0 in an exhibition senior men's football contest Saturday.
The game was the first between the two countries. It was also the Canadian senior program's first international competition since capturing a silver medal at the 2011 world championship in Austria.
Italy will participate in the European men’s tackle Final Four tournament in Dusseldorf in October with Austria, Finland and Germany.
Quarterback Michael O'Connor, a former CFL player with Calgary, Toronto and B.C., finished 11-of-14 passing for 138 yards with two touchdowns. Chris Merchant, who won a Vanier Cup with Western in 2017 and was the game MVP, completed 10-of-13 passes for 163 yards and a TD.
The contest capped a long, often challenging process for Jesse Maddox, the Canadian team's head coach and GM.
"It's going (on) 3 1/2, almost four years when it's all said and done so to get to this point is huge," Maddox said. "It's exciting, I'm glad we're here and hopefully this sets the stage for the world (championship).
"It you look at what you saw (Saturday) on film there's room for improvement but you're talking about six days of practices to get to where we are now. If I don't have the coaches I have, who are phenomenal, if I don't have players who I trust and don't have some familiarity with I don't think we even accomplish what we accomplished and we have a lot of room to improve."
O’Connor opened the scoring with a 23-yard TD strike to Javonni Cunningham before Dallas Dixon found Hayden Amis on an option pass for another score. Nixon's pick-six staked Canada to a 21-0 advantage then Ryth-Jean Giraud scored on a 19-yard run.
Merchant's 35-yard TD pass to a diving Trivel Pinto put Canada up 35-0 at halftime.
Then in the third, Kevin Victome's interception set up Jamel Lyles' three-yard TD run before O'Connor found Amis with another TD pass in the fourth. Nixon then registered the blocked punt, recovered the ball and scored his second touchdown of the game.
Michael Domagala, a former CFL kicker with Hamilton. Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal, booted eight converts.
Merchant said afterwards he enjoyed playing for his country.
"It's one the most special things I've ever been a part of in my life," he said. "Literally just the anthem brought tears to my eyes.
"It's definitely hard, especially offensively (to develop chemistry), but we have a great group of guys that I think were really focused and locked in this week. Sometimes you just have to put it up and get the ball into the hands of your athletes and we have a bunch of those on the field so it made our job easier as quarterbacks."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 19, 2025.
The Canadian Press
