Wildcats Take One On the Chin Against Hilltops

The Wildcats came into Sunday’s tilt looking for a share of second place in the conference, but came away with disappointment as a couple of early turnovers cost them and were never able to recover as they went down to defeat by a score of 28-15 in front of approximately 700 fans.

The visitors got off to an early 10-0 lead as they took advantage of Wildcat errors. Zach Schmidt missed on a short field goal try, but the return was fumbled and the Hilltops would recover at the Edmonton 8 yard line. Saskatoon made the Cats pay as Matt Karpinka connected with Brendon Gryba for a quick 7-point lead. Another muffed kick return led to a 42-yard Schmidt field goal over a minute later.

The Hilltops lead would expand to 17 as Tom Shockey barged in from a yard away almost two-and-a-half minutes into the second quarter. Schmidt was later wide on a 29-yard try as he struggled only hitting 2 of 5 tries on the game. The Wildcats would receive a huge boost as Tyler Henry took a Schmidt punt and took it all the way back for a 103-yard touchdown. The Toppers lead was 18-7 at the break.

Any hopes of a Wildcat comeback were put on ice when Andre Lalonde who ran for 202 yards on the day, finished off a drive where he did the bulk of the work, scored on a 3-yard run to salt away the win.

The Wildcats struggled offensively all afternoon as quarterback Jordan Olson sat out after being diagnosed with a broken wrist earlier in the week. The combination of Taylor Yaremchuk and Jesse Schneider combined for only 107 yards passing. Schmidt would hit on a 10-yard field goal, while Ideen Samadi chipped in with 2 field goals to make it a 28-15 final.

Offensively the Wildcats posted only 238 yards of net offensive, with 142 yards rushing and 107 yards passing. Jordan Samoil was contained in this game by the Hilltops defense as he was only able to muster 37 yards on 11 carries. Tyler Henry catch 3 passes for 55 yards while Taylor Yaremchuk was 6 for 15 passing for 61 yards on the day. The Hilltops posted 436 yards of net offense, with 249 yards on the ground and 210 yards in the air. André Lalonde carried the ball 33 times for 202 yards and 1 TD with Graham Unruh catching 5 passes for 57 yards. Matt Karpinka was 17 for 28 and 210 yards and 1 TD on the day.

On Defense the Wildcats had solid performances from Aiden Panchyshyn who posted 25 defensive points on 9 tackles, and Riley Aiken posting 16 points on 6 tackles and 2 pass knock downs. Ryan Migadel was a beast at safety with a couple of teeth rattling hits and posting 13 points on 4 tackles and 1 INT. The Hilltops Defense saw Dylan Kemp record 11 tackles for 22 points while Ben Cressman posted 13 points.

Next week sees the Wildcats hit the road for their final regular season game against the Regina Thunder at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Sunday October 7th start time 1:00pm.

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) 718-3447
www.edmontonwildcats.com