Colts clinch home playoff date, thanks to wild 35-35 draw versus Rifles

Call this an old-fashioned turkey shoot. Mind you, there were plenty of firearms discharged into errant feet, on both sides of the football, during this Thanksgiving Sunday thriller.

The Calgary Colts built up a 28-3 lead after one quarter, watched as the Winnipeg Rifles roared back with four third-quarter touchdowns, and held their composure for a late, critical scoring strike on Sunday afternoon. Final result? A bizarre 35-35 Prairie Football Conference draw at McMahon Stadium.

Dissect it all you want, but at the end of the day, the Colts (5-2-1) got what they came for. With that solitary point, Keith Kendal’s junior gridiron squad finished second overall in PFC standings, one up on the Regina Thunder (5-3), who downed the host Edmonton Wildcats 53-37 on Sunday. And that means the Colts will host their first PFC playoff game since 2008 — a conference semifinal against the Thunder on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. at McMahon.

“Didn’t you know? We thought it was a sellout today, and we wanted to give the crowd a thriller,” guffawed head coach Kendal. “Football, I think, is the toughest sport there is to protect a big lead. We were a perfect example today.

“Second and third quarters, we weren’t even around. But the big thing we showed (on that game-tying scoring drive) is that we can take it a piece at a time,” added Kendal. “I was really proud of everyone for that. We didn’t quit. We could have, but we didn’t.”

With the Rifles up 35-28 and time ticking down, the Colts mounted a pivotal seven-play, 48-yard scoring drive, which was forced into a third-down gamble along the way.

Quarterback Clayton Masikewich (3rd year, Calgary, John G. Diefenbaker) hit slotback Mac Sarro (2nd year, Calgary, Notre Dame HS) for that 14-yard big gainer, on third-and-seven, to the Winnipeg 21, and two plays later he connected again with Sarro for a 14-yard major score, with 1:56 remaining.

Placekicker Marshal Broom (1st year, Calgary, Notre Dame HS), playing in place of the injured Andrew Fabian (2nd year, Tilley, Alta., Brooks Composite HS), supplied the conversion, drawing the Colts even. An interception by defensive back Skylar Pinchak (4th year, Cardston, Alta., Cardston HS) with 18 seconds left sealed the deal.

“Everyone came together when we needed to,” said Sarro. “A home playoff game was a goal we’d worked toward all year. We take a lot of pride in our offence. We’ve got a lot of guts on this unit. When it’s clutch time, nobody wants to give up, and everybody’s doing what they can.”

For the Rifles (3-4-1), quarterback Ryan Marsch aired the ball out for 393 yards, and as a result, established a new Canadian Junior Football League standard with 3,030 passing yards in a single season. The record had previously been held by Nate Cole of the Victoria Rebels, who passed for 2,988 yards in 2007. Marsch also tied a PFC mark with 31 passing TDs, equaling the 1995 total of the Regina Rams’ Darryl Leason.

It didn’t remotely look like it’d be that sort of day for Marsch and the Rifles over the first 15 minutes. The Colts scored 14 points directly off Winnipeg miscues — a fumbled punt by Brad Mikuloff and a fumbled kickoff return by Julian Banares.

And the Colts’ offence was red-hot, with four major scores in the first 14 minutes and change. Cuong Thai Lieu (3rd year, Nanaimo, B.C., John Barsby HS) scampered 10 yards to paydirt at 2:19, Masikewich found Sarro on a four-yard hook pattern at 5:20, Chris Huband (1st year, Calgary, Rundle College) went straight up the middle 16 yards at 6:26, and D.J. Whetton (3rd year, Montreal, Bowness HS) rumbled six yards to the house at 14:18.

The third quarter, though, was nearly a mirror image — as the Colts made their own glaring mistakes, and the Rifles got uncorked with four majors of their own. Marsch found Matthew Lariviere 12 yards deep at 2:02, connected with Derek Dean from one yard out at 5:34, hooked up with Alex Vitt from seven yards at 7:16, and spread it around by finding Kurt Goodrich from 11 yards out at 15:00.

The game’s final two minutes proved tense, as the Colts did everything they could just to preserve that tie.

Dean was called for offensive pass interference on a touchdown catch, and Mikuloff found Dayton White for an incredible grab on a third-down fake punt, before Pinchak ended the drama with that pick, Marsch’s third of the day.

“A good way to finish it, for sure,” said Pinchak, who had a team-leading 24 defensive points, including five tackles, a pass knockdown, a fumble recovery, and that game-ending interception.

“We were upset with ourselves, because we made huge mental mistakes (in the third quarter). We came out lazy. We wanted to pick it up again, and seal it like we did.”