PFC: Wildcats & Thunder end season in tie

The Edmonton Wildcats went into Saturday’s game against the Regina Thunder knowing they needed a win to make it into the playoffs. After a 60 minute battle, the game concluded in a tie, leaving the Wildcats playoff fate in the hands of the Edmonton Huskies/Winnipeg Rifles game on Sunday afternoon.

The Wildcats saw the first points on the score board, with an Ideen Samadi field goal at 9:46, giving them a 3-0 lead. With 1:15 left in the first period, Levon Hawreliak got a touchdown, bringing the Wildcats lead to 10-0. The second quarter started with a touchdown from Thunder Will Heward, putting the Thunder on the scoreboard with a 10-7 Wildcats lead. Shortly after, the Thunder lined up for a field goal which was blocked by Wildcat Geoff Piper, putting the ball back in the Wildcats control. With 5 minutes left in the first half, Ideen Samadi kicked a 41-yard field goal, bringing the Wildcats lead to 13-7. The Thunder responded at 14:10 with a Dustin Erbach touchdown, ending the first half with a score of 14-13 in their favour.

The third period saw a field goal from each team. William McGee kicked one through for the Thunder at 7:02, increasing their lead to 17-13.  The Wildcats responded with an Ideen Samadi field goal at12:02 reducing the Thunder’s lead to 17-16. 1:35 into the fourth quarter, the Wildcats got another Samadi field goal, taking back the lead with a score of 19-17. At 3:53, Thunder Landon Walter found the end zone,  putting the Thunder back in the lead 24-19. The Thunder conceded a safety at 12:19, reducing their lead to 24-21. Ideen Samadi kicked a Wildcat field goal at 13:37 tying the game. With 0:13left, Samadi has another chance at a field goal, but it goes wide, ending the game in a 24-24 tie.

The Wildcats offense saw 593 total yards, with 443 on the ground and 150 in the air. Running Back Levon Hawreliak carried 40 times, for a total of 383 yards.  This breaks the PFC single game rushing record, and puts him in second in the CJFL.  The 40 carries in a single game is the 2^nd most in PFC history, and tied for 3^rd in the CJFL.  Rick LeMoignan lead the Wildcats for pass receiving with 3 catches for 65 yards. Quarterback Taylor Yaremchuk completed 8 out of 17 passes for 110 yards. For returns, Ryan Smith lead the team with 5 punt returns for 45 yards and 4 kick-off returns for 50 yards. The Thunder offense saw 174 yards, which 62 were rushing and 154 passing. Rushing was lead by Matt Frass with 8 carries for 21 yards. Brady Keller and Will Heward lead the pass receiving with 4 catches each – Keller for 47 yards and Heward for 34. Quarterback Kyle Siemens completed 16 out of 28 passing attempts for 154 yards.

Defensively the Wildcats were lead by Luc Catellier and Aidan Panchyshyn with 11 points each. Defensive Back Catellier had 3 tackles, 1 assisted tackle, and 1 interception.  Linebacker Panchyshyn had 3 tackles, 1 Quarterback sack, and 1 fumble return. The Thunder’s defense was lead by Defensive Back Landon Walter with 22 points consisting of 6 tackles, 2 pass knock downs, 1 interception, 10 interception yards, and 1 interception touchdown.

Wildcat’s Running Back Levon Hawreliak found himself with 5 new records in this game. As previously mentioned, he broke the PFC single game rushing record with 383 yards (putting him 2^nd in theCJFL). He is also third in the PFC in this category with 363 yards on the September 8 game. He has the second most carries in PFC history and is tied for 3^rd in the CJFL for his 40 carries. He has the 4^thmost carries in a PFC season (208), as well as the 2^nd most yards in a season (both PFC and CJFL) with 1,687 yards (trailing former Wildcat Tristan Jones who has 1,903 in the 2006 season). Finally, he is tied for 3^rd in the CJFL and 2^nd in the PFC for having three 200+ yard games in a season – again behind Tristan Jones who had 5 in 2006.

With the Edmonton Huskies win over the Winnipeg Rifles this afternoon, the Wildcats will be heading to Saskatoon next weekend for the first round of the playoffs!

All Edmonton Wildcat practices are at Rundle Park and the players take to the field at around 7:30 pm nightly.