PFC (Prairie Football Conference) Week 1 Review (video clip)

CALGARY COLTS – 33 EDMONTON HUSKIES – 7
AUGUST 21 @ CLARKE PARK
The 2010 Prairie Football Conference campaign opened up in Edmonton with the visiting Colts in town to face a Huskie club with veteran coach Bill MacDermott as the new bench boss.

The Colts drove deep into Edmonton territory on the game’s opening drive but were stymied as Colts starting signal caller Jeremy Long threw an incompletion on a 3rd down gamble.
After the Huskies conceded a safety to open the scoring, Douglas Long would run a Mike Goldring punt back 82 yards to vault the Colts into a 9-0 lead. Calgary held the Edmonton offense at bay again, and then their offense took over near the end of the quarter, driving down inside the Huskies 5 where Jeremy Long would make it 16-0 on his first of 2 touchdowns. Cuong Thai Lieu would scoot 8 yards for another major, and throw in an Andrew Fabian 26-yard field goal, the visitors led by 26 after 30 minutes.
Huskies DB Kevin Francis had 3 pass knockdowns in the half on his way to a 12 point night. Offensively, Edmonton was effectively shut down, registering 2 first downs and only 21 yards of offense in the 1st half.
After a scoreless third quarter, Jeremy Long would score on a 7 yard scamper to round out the Calgary scoring at 33-0. Then in the game’s final minute, the Huskie faithful would finally be rewarded as Kevin Allen located Anthony Barrett in the Colts end-zone on a third down gamble on the final play of the game. Mattias Hencke would convert to make it a 33-7 final.

SASKATOON HILLTOPS – 51 WINNIPEG RIFLES – 14
AUGUST 22 @ GORDIE HOWE BOWL
For the 2nd straight season, the Winnipeg Rifles opened up the PFC regular season at Saskatoon’s Gordie Howe Bowl and once again the Hilltops. Ryan Messner returned the game’s opening kickoff 43 yards to the Winnipeg 50. The Rifles would drive the ball down into Hilltop territory until starting quarterback Ryan Marsch’s backwards lateral to Yembeh Mohiba went amiss and Saskatoon’s Aaron Sayer would pick up the fumble and return to the Winnipeg 13 yard-line. The Hilltops would go two-and-out and rookie kicker Zack Schmidt would give Saskatoon a 3-0 lead. Saskatoon would up its advantage to 10-0 as Ian Miller hauled in his first of 3 TD grabs from starting pivot Chase Bradshaw.
The Rifles defense would hunker down in the middle frame. Rookie DB Marc Lapointe would
come up huge with an end zone interception to prevent a Hilltop major. The Winnipeg offense
moved the ball downfield as RB Martin Hovi, replacing Kienan Lafrance who didn’t make the
trip to the Bridge City, ground out first downs, but a Ryan Marsch pass was picked off for the second time late in the half. The errant throw would end up costing Winnipeg big as the Hilltops made it a 17-0 game as Miller reeled in his 2nd of 3 touchdown grabs one play after Aaron Haight latched on to a 29-yard pass on a 1st and 25 at the Rifle 49. Marsch would go 8/14 for 86 yards on the day.
Miller would rack up his 3rd and final TD catch to make it 24-0 in the 3rd. The Green Gunner offense would show some life as Derek Dean scored on a 15 yard pass from Tyler Nickel to make it 24-7. Kit Hillis would get a pair of touchdowns, the 2nd being a 54-yard punt return to make it a 38-7 game.
Nickel found Alex Vitt for a 23-yard TD strike to cut the margin to 38-14, one minute into the final frame. Nickel would complete 7 of 12 passes for 91 yards and 2 TD tosses in relief. But a Graham Unruh 9-yard reception from ackup pivot Randy Karpinka and 2 more Schmidt field goals would cap off the win. Rifles Head Coach Greg Graceffo said after the contest, “Sometimes score is not totally indicative of play. We rolled up 335 yards of offence. Martin Hovi rushed for 101 yards on 19 carries.
However, untimely penalties and 4 turnovers really hurt the team at critical junctures in the game.”
The Rifles would take 10 penalties for 90 yards and concede 538 yards in net offense.

REGINA THUNDER – 32 EDMONTON WILDCATS – 14
AUGUST 22 @ CLARKE PARK
The “Marquee Matchup” of the opening week saw two of the top contenders for the PFC Championship go toe-to-toe. Reid Quest leading his Regina Thunder mates into a contest with the Edmonton Wildcats with Adam Senuik at quarterback replacing Andy Pilon who graduated .
The Thunder would open the scoring nearly 5 minutes into the game as Kolten Solomon took a Reid Quest pass and wouldn’t look back, scoring on a 30-yard catch and following the Jon Probe convert, Regina led 7-0. Wildcat punter Donovan Kavich would concede a safety nearly 5 minutes later. Jon Probe would make good on a 25-yard field goal to give the visitors a 12-0 lead after 1.
The score would hold until late in the second stanza when Quest found Solomon again on a 44-yard pass for Solomon’s 2nd major of the game. The Probe convert gave Regina a 19-point halftime lead. The Thunder defense would hold the champions to 3 first downs and a paltry 68 yards of net offense in the first 30 minutes.
The 19-0 score would stay that way until Clay Cooke capped off an 8-play, 62-yard drive with a 4-yard TD grab 10- and-a-half minutes into the third frame. The Probe point-after was
blocked, keeping the score at 25-0 Thunder after 45 minutes.
The Wildcats offense would finally have a chance to roar in the 4th as Kendell Kennedy would score on a 4-yard scamper, wrapping up a 4-play, 46-yard drive to cut the deficit to 18 only 10 seconds into the quarter. But cue Kolten Solomon on the kickoff, as he would take the Kavich kickoff all the way back 105 yards to end any comeback ideas the Wildcats may have had. After the Probe convert, it was 32-7. Edmonton would get a 2nd TD with 3:22 left as Andrew Johnson, who caught 3 passes on the day, reeled in an 8-yard pass from Senuik, add the Kavich convert and make the final 32-14 Regina.

WEEK ONE IN REVIEW
By Tom Hallick – PFC Media Coordinator