The bantam Fury whipped up a big win against their hometown rivals on Minor Football Day in St. Albert.
Sparked by Andrew Johnson’s three touchdowns, the Fury overwhelmed the 49ers 53-6 Saturday at the Riel Park turf field.
“It was a whole team effort. It wasn’t just one player,” said Johnson, a dominating figure at running back and defensive end.
The Fury posted leads of 8-6 after the first quarter, 28-6 at halftime and 47-6 after three quarters.
“They’ve got some good players but we figured out how their offence worked and just shut them down,” said Johnson, 14.
The Fury racked up eight TDs, including Nick Cowen’s 35-yard interception return late in the third quarter.
“We executed our plays,” Johnson said. “Our O-line helped a lot too. There was lots of good blocking and that helped our offence.”
The Fury set the tone for victory on the opening kickoff, when speedster Seth Waselenchuk bolted into the end zone but an illegal block wiped out the TD. Two plays later, Rory O’Donovan scored from 10 yards out.
After Kieran Porter ran back the ensuing kick off to the Fury 38-yard line, the 49ers used a combination of passing and running plays, plus a key third-down conversion, to even the score. Tyler Gagan’s 10-yard TD grab from quarterback Brendan Guy capped off the drive.
The first quarter ended with a safety by the Fury.
“When they scored, we were like, ‘Oh, no. They’re going to catch up,’” Johnson said. “It took a bit of time but we got through to them. We pulled off some plays and came back and won.”
The first quarter brought out the best in the 49ers.
“We started off well. Our first quarter was pretty good. We had a great drive to score a touchdown and then very quickly [the Fury] shook their heads and gave us a better game the rest of the way,” said coach Randy Guy. “In the second half, we lost focus a little bit.”
In the second quarter, Johnson busted through the line from one yard out to put the Fury ahead to stay.
The teams proceeded to trade turnovers. Connor Florence picked off Fury quarterback Shaydon Philip at the 49ers’ 38 and John Rouse of the Fury fell on a fumble at the 49ers’ 40. On the next play, Waselenchuk weaved his way into the end zone. Philip ran in the two-point convert with 4:21 left until halftime.
Johnson’s second TD was a nine-yard pitch play after the 49ers were unable to get a punt away from their 31.
An interception by Felix Mba of the Fury closed out the first half.
In the second quarter, Mba (two-yard major after Philip and Waselenchuk hooked for a big pass-and-run play), Johnson (14-yard run) and Cowen’s pick padded the Fury’s lead.
Anthony Borrelli (22 yards) rounded out the scoring in the last minute of play.
After the bantam showdown, the Fury improved to 2-0 and the 49ers dropped to 0-2 in the Johnny Bright division in the Capital District Minor Football Association.
“The difference here today was we’ve got two different tiers of teams. The Fury will be a tier one/two team and we’ll be a tier three/four team. That’s where we knew we were going to be and I think we can compete against teams of that same tier,” said coach Guy.
The 49ers were coming off a 33-13 loss to the Spruce Grove Cougars (1-1) in St. Albert.
“We’re building every week. The kids are still learning systems and their positions. As we continue to go along we expect the kids to get better and improve,” said coach Guy.
Johnson said the Fury raised their level of play after the season-opening 40-6 win against the Northstars (0-1) in Sherwood Park.
“It was a better effort today. This team was better than that other team. We just tried a lot harder too,” said the Grade 9 Sir George Simpson student.
Last year, the Fury finished 4-6 overall after losing the league’s tier II final 33-7 to the Edmonton Chargers.
“In the division we’re in, we’re potentially better than we were last year. It’s going to come down to teamwork and good offensive execution,” said Johnson, who is among a solid core of returning players on the Fury roster. “Last year, our defence was pretty much all first-years, so our defence is pretty much the same. They’re experienced and they know what they’re doing. That’s going to be our strength.”
THIRD DOWN: St. Albert’s atom team kicked off Saturday’s tripleheader at the Riel Park field, with the Vikings sinking the Buccaneers 56-0.
The St. Albert peewee tilt saw the Riders corral the Colts 30-0.
