By Neil Hodge
Times & Transcript Staff







It's an understatement to say the Moncton Mustangs have been the dominant team in recent times in the Maritime Football League.
They've won the past four championships and they're 40-1 since the start of the 2007 season in regular season and playoffs combined. They're riding a current 26-game winning streak, something that's a league record.
"We don't talk about the winning streak too much," said Moncton head coach Rob Weir. "It's an extra pressure that we don't need and we're not that worried about it. It's one of those things that's nice to look at once in awhile.
"It's an interesting stat. It says something about our team and how hard the guys work in both practices and games. We don't fall into the trap of taking anyone too lightly. I'm really proud of our team's work ethic and consistency from week to week regardless of who we're playing."
Moncton hosts the Prince Edward Island Privateers today at 1 p.m. at Rocky Stone Memorial Field. Instead of purchasing tickets, fans are asked to make a donation and all proceeds from this game will go to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Moncton and the Saint John Wanderers, both 3-0, are tied for first place in the New Brunswick Conference. The Capital Area Gladiators of Fredericton are in the basement at 0-3.
The Dartmouth Knights, 2-1, sit atop the Eastern Conference. The Halifax Shockers, 1-2, are runners-up and P.E.I. is 0-3.
In other action today, Capital Area visits Halifax and Dartmouth hosts Saint John.
"We're still doing the work it takes to be a championship team," said Weir. "The cards will fall where they will and we'll see what happens in the end, but I'm very pleased with the way our team is performing in games and practices."
Moncton has the top ranked defence in the league, allowing just 17 points against in three games. Dartmouth is next best in that department, surrendering 54 points against in three outings.
"I'm very impressed with our defence so far," said Weir. "We have a lot of young guys on our defence this year and they're doing a heckuva job. P.E.I. is a serious offensive threat.
"We had a very high-scoring game against P.E.I. last season. They're an aerial team. They throw the ball a lot and they have a decent running game.
"They're a two-pronged threat so our defence will have to step up in this game."
Moncton defeated P.E.I. 71-48 last season. They established an MFL record by combining for 119 points in that game.
"(P.E.I.'s) Chris Mutch is one of the league's top quarterbacks," said Weir. "He sees the field well. He delivers the ball up field very nicely to the intermediate passing zones. He completes pass after pass and marches his team up the field to score.
"He's a good athlete who moves well and they have a decent offensive line. You have to get pressure on him and contain him on the edges so he doesn't roll out and run the ball."
Moncton is fourth best offensively in the six-team league, scoring 69 points in three games.
"We have a young rookie quarterback in John Toogood who doesn't understand our full system yet," said Weir. "He was only out for three practices before we played our first game so it was a steep learning curve for him and he's stepped up quite well. He's learning by leaps and bounds game after game.
"Our young quarterback and our young receiving corps is learning the offence and becoming more familiar with it. We did things in our third game that we didn't do in our first game.''


timestranscript.com - Grid Mustangs host P.E.I. squad today | By Neil Hodge - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada