Today’s clash between the two St. Albert bantam teams kicks off at 12:30 p.m. at Riel Recreation Park.
The senior varsity 49ers are 2-0 in the Bright Division of the Capital District Minor Football Association after the 27-21 win over Millwoods Grizzlies (1-1) last weekend in St. Albert.
The junior varsity Fury are 0-2 in the Parker Division after losing 44-41 to the host Sherwood Park Wolverines (1-1) last weekend.
The St. Albert peewee teams also huddle up today. The senior varsity Riders tackle the Edmonton Seahawks (0-2) at 10 a.m. at Clareview Rec Centre and the junior varsity Colts visit the Sherwood Park SabreCats (0-2) at 5:30 p.m. at Emerald Hills Field.
The Riders are 1-1 in the Bright Division after the 28-6 win over Millwoods (1-1) in St. Albert. The Colts are also 1-1 in the Fryer Division following the 13-0 decision over the SabreCats. Both games were played in St. Albert last weekend.
The 30th consecutive win in the metro Edmonton junior regular season and playoffs for the Bellerose Bulldogs since losing the 2011 semifinal was Tuesday’s pool B lid-lifter against the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds.
The metro division one champions the last four years tacked up 33 points in the first half, en route to the 45-0 shutout at Clarke Park.
Jared Koziol played the first half at quarterback and tossed four TD passes and was intercepted once.
The Bulldogs started with a bang, as Ben Power returned the opening kick-off 85 yards into the endzone. The convert hit the crossbar.
The defence then held Shep to a two-and-out and after an unnecessary roughness flag, the Bulldogs huddle up at their one and proceeded to go the distance as Koziol hooked up with Andrew Nielsen for a 44-yard score. Koziol also ran in the two-point conversion.
The next TD was Koziol to Nathan Brake for 25 yards.
In the second quarter, and the Bulldogs up by 20, defensive end Nolan Flatla recovered a fumble inside Shep territory and Koziol hit Brake again, this time for a 29-yard TD.
Dylan Long, the backup punter and starting linebacker, would later boom a 55-yard punt single. Long also led the defence in tackles.
Late in the half, Koziol’s screen pass to Sheldon MacKay resulted in a 10-yard TD.
Nielsen was at the controls in the second half and teamed up with Koziol for a 10-yard TD pass in the third quarter.
Nathan McCarthy’s 25-yard run set-up Nielsen’s one-yard quarterback sneak and on the two-point conversion the Bulldogs took a knee.
Today the juniors are competing at the Whitecourt jamboree and Tuesday they host the St. Joseph Saints at 6 p.m. at Riel Recreation Park.
The big and fast Saints run a crisp offence, as evident in their 40-7 win over the O’Leary Spartans.
A nine-point lead with four minutes remaining wasn’t large enough for the Paul Kane Blues to secure a victory in Tuesday’s metro Edmonton junior opener.
The Blues surrendered two touchdowns, including the go-ahead major with 2.1 seconds to play, in the 39-36 pool B loss to the Memorial Marauders at Riel Recreation Park.
A two-yard plunge by quarterback Russ Dixon and two-point conversion put the Blues up by a comfortable 36-27 margin before the wheels fell off the bus. Memorial took its next drive down to the Paul Kane 20 before turning it over on downs with 1:07 left. However, on the next play, Memorial recovered a fumble by fullback Ryland Baerg and scored three plays later. A missed convert left the score at 36-33 with 45 seconds to go.
Memorial was back in business again after a successful short kick and drove the ball to the two. A quick slant TD pass completed the comeback.
The Blues got rolling early by dominating time of possession in the first quarter except for only two minutes, highlighted by Dixon’s 25-yard TD pass to Ty Baird.
In the second quarter, Brendan Wagensveld’s 53-yard scoring run and TD strikes of 42 yards to Baird and 64 yards to Alex Gamble from Dixon increased the lead.
At halftime it was 28-7 Blues.
The tide turned in the second half as Memorial scored three TDs at will against the sluggish Blues. The third quarter ended with a Memorial TD and a blocked convert to leave the score 28-27 Blues.
The Blues got back on track as the offence started moving again and drove the ball deep into Memorial territory three times but only came away with Dixon’s TD.
The next game is Tuesday versus the O’Leary Spartans (0-1) at 7:30 p.m. at Clarke Park.
