The first win in the division three Gilfillan conference slipped away from the Sturgeon Spirits in last week’s metro Edmonton season opener.
The Ardrossan Bisons rallied from a three-point deficit in the final minute to defeat the first-year Spirits 33-28 at Larry Olexiuk Field.
“It was a tough one. Lots of momentum shifts,” said head coach Chad Hill. “It was an intense game that felt more like a playoff than a first regular season game.”
Zach Froese’s quarterback sneak put Sturgeon on top 28-25 late in the game.
On Ardrossan’s last possession, facing third and five at the Sturgeon 40, an acrobatic catch off a tipped pass in the secondary kept the drive alive.
Ardrossan went to its heavy-set formation and proceeded to advance the ball against Sturgeon’s beat-up front seven, culminating with the go-ahead touchdown from the two.
With 20 seconds remaining, Sturgeon huddled up deep in its end and a 40-yard completion to Kyle Phillips was followed by an incomplete pass on the last play of the game.
“We need to improve some areas and clean some things up in order to beat the Bisons the next time we play them,” Hill said. “I also need to be more detail oriented in coaching up certain areas because we’re not far off. It’s just the few little things that end up being big things when we play good teams like Ardrossan who are well coached and have experienced players and strong athletes.”
Sturgeon fell behind 3-0 after the first quarter as the defence bent but didn’t break.
“We came out shaky. Some of the boys were nervous and we didn’t execute,” Hill said.
Sturgeon got back on track with the first of two TDs by Chase Kobza as Froese started connecting with his receivers. William Campbell also caught the two-point conversion pass.
On the kickoff, Ardrossan took it to the house as Sturgeon’s containment broke down.
Sturgeon got hot to end the half as the passing game continued to burn the Bisons. Kobza and Campbell both reeled in TD passes from Froese and Campbell also snagged another two-point conversion to make it 22-12 at halftime.
Campbell’s fade route is becoming a staple on the Sturgeon offence.
As for the running game, a revolving door of players in the backfield filled in for Dylan Young and Addison Chaabane after they left the game with injuries and rugby standout Colten Brenneis didn’t dress because of an injury.
“It was a physical game as both teams had players needing training staff," Hill said. “Our offence really became limited early on in terms of what formations we were able to run based off limited personnel. We got thin in our front seven as the game wore on as well.”
In the third quarter, the Bisons struck quickly as Froese was hit on a pass attempt and the fluttering ball was intercepted and returned for a 50-yard pick-six.
Keon Nurse also took a fly sweep 40 yards by simply out-running the Sturgeon defenders who took poor angles in trying to stop the speedy Bison.
Sturgeon’s offence struggled with the blitz-heavy Bisons for most of the second half until playmaker Nathan Brake caught a beautiful pass down the hash marks for a key first down in the fourth quarter.
On the next play, Froese called Brake's number again and the slotback drew pass interference and unnecessary roughness penalties to put the ball on the one for Froese to score Sturgeon’s last TD for the three-point lead.
Up next for Sturgeon are the Holy Trinity Trojans and Thursday’s kickoff is 7:30 p.m. in St. Albert.
The Trojans blanked the Eastglen Blue Devils 30-0 last week.
