Rifles Rumble over the Wildcats

The Edmonton Wildcats rolled into Winnipeg looking for their first win of the season. But the Rifles would deny them that victory, holding the Cats to 21 points en route to a 33 -21 win in front of approximately 400 fans at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg

The weekends contest was important for both teams with the Rifles wanting to stretch their winning streak to 3 and continue their momentum after their win last weekend in Edmonton against the Huskies while the Wildcats were trying to get on track and into the win column.

The Rifles took an early 10-0 lead with Andrew Wiebe 24-yard field goal 5 minutes into the game, then PFC rushing leader Kienan LaFrance would run 51 yards to score his 5th TD along the ground.

The Wildcats would get the next 14 points as Nick Ross took a 14-yard pass from Andrew Johnson with 3:10 to go in the first frame; and then fullback Kendell Kennedy powered his way in from 13 yards to give Edmonton the lead nearly 2 minutes into the 2nd quarter.The Rifles would take back the lead as Matt Lariviere , snagged a 16-yard strike from pivot Ryan Marsch to make it 17-14 at halftime.

To open the second half the Rifles would execute an onside kick perfectly recovering the ball on the Wildcats 45 yd line. The home side would settle for an 11-yard field goal 90 seconds into the 3rd quarter. The Wildcats took the lead for the second time 6 and-a-half minutes later as Lambert took a 25-yard pass from Johnson for the score. The Donovan Kavich convert gave the PFC champions a 21-20 lead.

Winnipeg took back the lead for good as fullback Bryan Giesbrecht ran up the middle 10 yards to make it 27-21 after the Wiebe point after. The Rifles would add field goals from 32 and 23 yards respectively to round out the scoring to make the final 33-21 for the home squad.

The Rifles move into a 4-way tie for 1st in the conference with Saskatoon, Calgary and Regina at 3-1. The Wildcats drop to 0-4 on the season.

The Wildcats struggled on the defensive side of the ball allowing the Rifles to rush for 220 yds and 331 receiving yds totaling 551 net yds of offense. The Cats couldn’t seem to make plays at key times in the game, allowing the Rifles offense to remain on the field. Ray Hurrel led all defenseman with 7 tackles and 14 points on the day while Mike Podloski and Steven Giang each had 4 tackles and 9 points in the contest.

The Wildcats put up 390 yds of net offense with Andrew Johnson getting his first start at QB completing an impressive 16 of 24 for 213 yds and 2 TD’s while the ground game without injured running backs Justin McEvoy and Shiane Runcie picked up 189 total rushing yds on the day. Running Back Taylor Souster had a strong outing, managing to pound out 104 yds on 16 carries to lead the team. Wide Receiver Jerit Lambert had a good day as well racking up 105 yds on 6 catches. The Rifles had 551 yds of net offense with Ryan Marsch completing 17 of 27 for 331 yds and 1 TD. The Rifles running game racked up 220 yds with Kienan LaFrance picking up the bulk of the yardage with 191yds on 26 carries and 1 TD. The home team’s receivers Lariviere and Dean both picked up 130 receiving yds on 6 catches

Next game sees the Wildcats back in Edmonton for a back to back series with their cross town rivals the Edmonton Huskies at Clarke Park on Saturday September 25th at 7:00pm. The Wildcats will be the visitors at the game this weekend.

All Edmonton Wildcat practices are at Rundle Park and the players take to the field at around 7:30 pm nightly.

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Stuart Gibson
Edmonton Wildcats Media Coordinator
media@edmontonwildcats.com
Phone (780) 221-3671 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (780) 221-3671      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
www.edmontonwildcats.com