Hilltops force three second-quarter turnovers, score 28 points on way to 44-16 victory to advance to Prairie Football Conference final<\/p>\n
The Saskatoon Hilltops left nothing to chance against the Edmonton Wildcats on Sunday afternoon, and as a result they\u2019ll be returning to the Prairie Football Conference championship game.<\/p>\n
The Hilltops scored 28 points in the second quarter and would go on to a 44-16 victory over Edmonton in the PFC semifinal at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a result, they\u2019ll travel south to face the Regina Thunder in the PFC title game after their 40-10 win over the Calgary Colts in the other semifinal..<\/p>\n
The Wildcats took a huge blow on their first series of the game when standout running back Darien Currie went down with a leg injury and had to be helped off the field, unable to put any weight on the injured limb. He didn\u2019t return to the game, taking away the prime weapon for Edmonton\u2019s offence.<\/p>\n
Neither team was able to get much going when they had the ball early in the cool and wet conditions, as the defences allowed only a first down here and there before forcing punts on the majority of first quarter drives.<\/p>\n
The Hilltops had the first good scoring opportunity with 2:50 to play in the first, when a solid defensive stand, short Wildcats punt and no yards penalty set Saskatoon up at the Edmonton 35.<\/p>\n
Luke Bednarek had a 29-yard catch to get up to the Wildcats seven, but a stuffed run and near interception in the end zone snuffed the drive. Ryden Gratton had a 17-yard field goal attempt and he\u2019d make it for a 3-0 lead with 57 seconds left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Charles Sawi had the first big play of the game early in the second quarter, hauling in a punt at the Hilltops 20, snaking his way up the sideline before cutting across the field and getting all the way up to the Edmonton 20 before stepping out of bounds.<\/p>\n
Five plays later, backup quarterback Sam Bazarkiewicz scrambled in on a sweep from six yards out, giving Saskatoon a 10-0 edge with 10:20 to play in the first half.<\/p>\n
Edmonton took advantage of Hilltops penalties and a couple of solid defensive plays to pin Saskatoon deep in their zone on the next drive. The Hilltops opted to give up the safety to flip the field, making it 10-2 at the eight minute mark of the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Carson Holcomb came up huge for Saskatoon on Edmonton\u2019s next drive, snaring a Wildcats pass at the 45 and going all the way back to the one to set up the Hilltops first-and goal. Brody Komarnicki then finished things off with a dive over the line, making it 17-2 with 7:19 left in the first half.<\/p>\n
Another massive play set Saskatoon up for their next major.<\/p>\n
A coffin-corner punt was muffed by the Edmonton returner, and Nate Gallant would get to the ball just before it went out of bounds. That set the Hilltops up at the Edmonton 12, and one play later Bazarkiewicz found Donovan Harkness wide open in the end zone for the 24-2 lead just before the three-minute warning.<\/p>\n
The hits just kept coming, as after Edmonton was pinned deep in their own half, Gallant intercepted a pass at the Wildcats 20 to set the Hilltops up in the red zone with 1:45 left in before the break.<\/p>\n
Corbin Eben fought through a left leg tweak to finish off the drive, catching a five-yard swing pass from Bazarkiewicz and limping across the line for a 31-2 edge with 38 seconds left in the half.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where things stood heading into the break .<\/p>\n
A couple of big plays on their first drive to start the third quarter got Edmonton up to the Hilltops eight, eventually leading to a third down gamble from the three. Saskatoon went offside on the play to give the Wildcats a fresh set of downs from the two, and Ladainian Okoroduku punched it in to make it 31-9 with 9:12 to play in the third.<\/p>\n
The Hilltops put together a time-grinding drive to kill off a large portion of the quarter, and Gratton would hit a 25-yard field goal on the final play of the third to make it a 34-9 Hilltops edge with 15 minutes to play.<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s next drive ended up in Holcomb\u2019s hands for the second time in the game, setting Saskatoon up at the Edmonton 27 with 13:45 to play. That drive ended with a 35-yard field goal for a 37-9 lead.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats\u2019 Carson Elkew scored on a two-yard plunge to make it a 37-16 game with 5:11 to play, but Brody Nelson got that one back on Saskatoon\u2019s next drive, and it was a monster play. Nelson got the ball on the Hilltops\u2019 51 and rumbled through a huge hole before going 59 yards to the house. The major made it 44-16 with 4:45 remaining in the game.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where things would wrap up, and Saskatoon was off to the PFC Final, which will take place on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. at Leibel Field in Regina.<\/p>\n
Be sure to check back for stats as they become available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hilltops force three second-quarter turnovers, score 28 points on way to 44-16 victory to advance to Prairie Football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-929860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}