CJFL: Colts stay undefeated after offensive explosion

The Colts pulled off a 52-35 victory in a Prairie Football Conference
game that had almost 1,000 yards in net offence. The Colts, who were
No. 1 ranked in the Canadian Junior Football League entering the game,
piled up 519 in net yards and the visiting Thunder 438.
Calgary is now 2-0 and Regina 1-1.

“It was a real crazy game, there were a lot of big plays from both
teams,” said Colts head coach John Stevens.

“We made a lot of mistakes, but on the other hand we made a lot of big
plays on both sides of the ball. I’m really happy with the fact that
the team worked through all the issues we had to work through.
“One of the things we talk about with the players is that attitude is
everything and give it your all. That attitude has given us two wins.”
Chucks Okafor ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns and Dustin Whetton
107 yards and another score for the Colts.

A key play came from linebacker Stephen Dereniwski, who picked off
Kyle Siemens and ran 64 yards for a TD to put the Colts ahead to stay
at 37-32 with 10:33 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Defensive back Jermaine Gabriel had two big interceptions, including a
pick in the endzone late in the fourth quarter with the Colts up
45-35. Gabriel ran it out to the 53 and the Colts then drove to close
out the scoring on Whetton’s five-yard run with 1:30 left.

“They had all the momentum early on; we just had to gather our troops
and come from behind,” said Gabriel, who along with Richard Pilkington
led the Colts defence with five tackles each.

“This was a big win. We wanted to be 2-0. We have a really good
offence. They did the job for us. We just held up our end of it.”

The Colts were scrambling to keep up with the Thunder the entire first
half. Landon Walter’s 67-yard interception return off a tipped ball
put Regina up 8-0 less than four minutes into the game. Clayton
Cooke’s one-yard plunge made it 15-3.

The Thunder led 25-24 at the break.

Colts quarterback Derek Cooper finished with 233 yards passing on 13
of 24 attempts. Jimmy Ralph was his favourite target with eight
catches for 150 yards. Cooper’s loneTD pass was a nifty 27-yard
pass-and-run with Matt Lamoureux that pulled the Colts to within 32-31
with just over a minute gone in the fourth quarter.

Backup QB Jeremy Long added the other Colts TD on a one-yard run. Long
replaces Cooper on short yardage situations.

“Anytime you can come out with two points it’s a good game,” said
Cooper, who ran for 74 yards on four carries, including one of 37
yards.

“That’s the beauty of football. It’s a team game. It’s nice when you
can go out like that and trust that when it matters the defence will
make a big play and that they can trust us to do the same.”
The Colts make their first of two trips up to Edmonton next Sunday,
facing the Wildcats at Clarke Park at 3 p.m.
They are next at home against the Edmonton Huskies Sunday, Sept. 9 at
2 p.m., at McMahon.

RUSHING NO YDS AVG LONG TD
4 WHETTON, Dustin 9 107 11.9 32 1
5 OKAFOR, Chucks 17 118 6.9 38 2
7 LONG, Jeremy 1 1 1.0 1 1
10 COOPER, Derek 4 74 18.5 37 1
13 DOUBELL, Kyle 1 10 10.0 10 0

PASSES ATTEMPT / COMPLETE 24 / 13 39 / 25
6 SIEMENS, Kyle 1 0 0.0 0 0
9 BESSEL, Landon 8 77 9.6 19 0
26 HANDZUIK, Mitch 1 2 2.0 2 0
32 BROWN, Nick 9 16 1.8 9 0
33 BANIN, Justin 1 5 5.0 5 0
35 DOBNI, Isaiah 1 0 0.0 0 0

PASSING ATT COMP YDS LONG INT TD 
10 COOPER, Derek 24 13 233 28 1 1
6 SIEMENS, Kyle 21 10 152 34 3 1
9 BESSEL, Landon  18 15 208 42 1 2

PASS RECEIVING NO YDS LONG TD
4 WHETTON, Dustin 1 5 5 0
12 PETROS, Nik 2 32 19 0
20 RALPH, Jimmy 8 150 28 0
22 LAMOUREUX, Matt 2 46 27 1 22
22 CARR, Jacob 5 55 16 0 4
32 BROWN, Nick 1 1 1 0 22
71 THOMPSON, Mitchell 4 88 42 0 26
83 COOKE, Clayton 8 116 34 3
84 LAGIMODIERE, Camille 5 77 19 0 17
88 HEWARD, Will 2 23 19 0 26

PUNT RETURNS NO YDS LONG TD
LAMOUREUX, Matt 3 11 11 0
25 WENDELL, Scott 1 1 1 0
71 THOMPSON, Mitchell 1 6 6 0
83 COOKE, Clayton 1 17 17 0

KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS LONG TD
WHETTON, Dustin 1 0 0 0
LAMOUREUX, Matt 1 15 15 0
BAUMAN, Kalon 3 115 55 0
ERBACH, Dustin 4 186 77 0
HANDZUIK, Mitch 3 33 21 0
BROWN, Nick 1 15 15 0

INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS LONG TD
9 GABRIEL, Jermaine 2 60 57 0
17 McDONALD, Patrick 1 0 0 0
42 DERENIWSKI, Stephen 1 64 64 14
WALTER, Landon 1 83 83 1

PUNTING NO YDS NET LONG
8 BROOM, Marshall 5 150 114 46 38
1 KOOT, Ben 4 170 158 50

KICKOFFS NO YDS NET LONG
8 BROOM, Marshall 8 405 181 60
1 KOOT, Ben 4 181 96 50
10 CABYLIS, Yianni 1 48 3 48