Under-16 Team BC to play for gold at 2013 Red River Cup

WINNIPEG, MB. – Football BC’s provincial under-16 tackle team (“Team BC”) will play for the gold medal at the 2013 Red River Cup tournament after finishing in second place during the round robin portion of the tournament with a record of two wins and two losses.

Team BC will be facing Winnipeg West in the gold medal contest that kicks off at 4 pm PT on Saturday, July 13 at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg West defeated Team BC in the lone meeting between the teams during the round robin portion of the tournament by a score of 21-16.

Team BC finished in a three-way tie for second place in the round robin standings along with Northern Saskatchewan and Southern Saskatchewan but earned the berth in the gold medal game on a tiebreak.

Winnipeg West finished as the top team in the round robin portion of the tournament with a record of four wins and no losses.

“They’re certainly a very good team – very good on both sides of the ball and special teams,” said Team BC head coach Sean Roden of Winnipeg West. “I think they have the best player in the tournament in running back Trevor Wright and we have to figure out how to stop him.

“We’ll probably game plan for him and then force them to beat us with some other weapons.”

Team BC began the second day of tournament play by dropping a 14-0 decision to Southern Saskatchewan before rebounding with a 21-14 victory over Winnipeg East.

In their first game of the day against Southern Saskatchewan, Team BC’s fell behind early and after Southern Saskatchewan’s Kyle Borsa returned a punt 75 yards for a touchdown and never recovered.

They went on to surrendered another touchdown late in the second half after Team BC QB Jacob Laberge (North Langley Bears) threw an interception to Southern Saskatchewan’s Taggart McMillan who took the ball 95-yards down the field for the score.

Team BC DB Sean Stewart (Terry Fox Ravens) recorded an interception in the loss.

“We have to shut down our mistakes because mistakes really cost us the game early today,” said Roden looking ahead to Saturday’s gold medal game. “The boys are very, very motivated. We shouldn’t have to get them up emotionally but we just have to make sure that we’re technically better than we have been.

In their second contest on Wednesday, Team BC managed to jump out to a 21-0 lead thanks to a pair of touchdown catches made by receiver Jonny Grohovac (Mt. Douglas Rams), who was named the player of the game.

Running back Alexsander Akpata (Vancouver College Fighting Irish) also added a running touchdown.

Winnipeg East managed to score a pair of quick touchdowns in the second half and then appeared to have the game equalized after Keenan Onyebuchi returned a missed Team BC field goal attempt 115 yards for a touchdown but the play was called back due to a penalty.

Team BC DB Brandon White (Nanaimo Redmen) recorded an interception with seven seconds remaining in the contest to seal the victory.

Team BC OL Rayl Paling (Mission Roadrunners) suffered a whiplash injury during the contest that resulted in play stopping for about 30 minutes. He was transported to a local hospital for precautionary measures and will not play in Saturday’s gold medal game but is in good spirits and doing fine according to Coach Roden.

Detailed game stats can be found on the official Red River Cup website at http://www.redrivercup.com.

(With files from Daniel Fung)