WINNIPEG, MB. – Football BC’s provincial under-16 tackle team (“Team BC”) has concluded the opening day of the 2013 Red River Cup tournament at Investors Group Field with a record of one win and one loss.
Team BC opened the tournament on a strong note posting a 21-0 victory over Northern Saskatchewan before dropping a 21-16 decision to Winnipeg West in their second contest.
After the opening day of the tournament, Team BC sits in a three-way tie for second place alongside Northern Saskatchewan and Southern Saskatchewan. All three teams have a record of one win and one loss.
“We played extremely well with the limited amount of practice that we had and we made about the amount of mistakes that we expected to make,” said Team BC head coach Sean Roden. “In the first game we got away with most of them and in the second game we didn’t and that was a lot of the difference.
“We were very physical and we played with a lot of heart and we have two days of practice now to shore up some of those mistakes and hopefully come back with a better performance on Wednesday.”
Winnipeg West sits atop the round robin standings with a record of two wins and no losses while Winnipeg East brings up the rear with a record of no wins and two losses.
The top two teams at the end of the round robin portion of the tournament advance directly to the gold medal game on Saturday, July 13.
“We have our destiny in our own control,” added coach Roden. “If we can take care of business on Wednesdaythen we will be in the gold medal game.”
In Team BC’s opening game victory over Northern Saskatchewan, QB Jacob Laberge (North Langley Bears) threw for two touchdowns connecting with REC Jacob Ghazizadeh (Handsworth Royals) and REC Manuel Lopez (Mt. Douglas Rams) and was named the Player of the Game.
RB Billy Hanson (GW Graham Grizzlies) also added a touchdown run in the first contest.
Laberge also threw for two touchdowns in Team BC’s loss to Winnipeg West connecting once again with Lopez in the first half and then with RB Alexsander Akpata (Vancouver College Fighting Irish) on a 67-yard strike in the second half.
Detailed game stats can be found on the official Red River Cup website at http://www.redrivercup.com.
Team BC will play twice on Wednesday, July 10 when the tournament resumes taking on Southern Saskatchewan (11:45 am PT) and Winnipeg East (3:15 pm PT).
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