Rifles edge huskies in prairie junior action


For the second consecutive Sunday, it went down to the last drive of the game, but the Winnipeg Rifles held off the Edmonton Huskies to get their second straight victory 21-15 over the Huskies in front of an estimated gathering of 700 at Clarke Park on Sunday.

The game didn’t start well for the Rifles as Edmonton’s Mike Goldring took the opening kickoff and rambled 91 yards all the way down to the Winnipeg 11-yard-line. The defense would hold forcing Huskie kicker Mattias Hencke to kick a 23-yard field goal to give the home team a 3-0 edge only 85 seconds in.
Kienan LaFrance would put the Rifles on the board nearly 3 minutes later, scoring his 4th touchdown of the season on a 32-yard run to give the Green Gunners a 7-3 lead. He would run the ball 20 times for 106 yards on the day. Hencke would make good on a 25-yard field goal to cut the Rifles lead to 7-6 after 1 quarter.
Hencke would kick a pair of placements in the second quarter; the second of those came from 25 yards away on the last play of the half to make it 12-7 Edmonton at the break.
The Rifles would go in front to stay in the 3rd quarter as LB Chris Friesen picked up a Huskie fumble and ran it 20 yards for the major score to give Winnipeg a 14-12 lead coming home.
Andrew Wiebe would kick a 31-yard field goal and on the ensuing play kick a 66-yard single in the first minute of the fourth quarter, and then add a 37-yard shot to give the Gunners a 9-point edge.
Hencke would hit his 5th field goal to create an exciting finish. Edmonton would drive down to the Winnipeg 15 only to get stopped on a third down gamble, sealing the Rifles 2nd win of 2010.
The Rifles move into a 3-way tie for the conference lead with Regina & Saskatoon who have 2-0 marks while the Huskies drop their 3rd game of 2010 and 19th straight dating back to October 7, 2007 when they downed the Rifles 35-12 in their final game of the season.
The Gunners enjoy a bye week, and then resume action on September 19th against the PFC champion Edmonton Wildcats at noon at Canad Inns Stadium.

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