FCC2017: Defence guides Alberta to opening day victory

Alberta kicked off the 2017 Football Canada Cup in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with a 36-10 win over Manitoba.

Alberta moves on to play defending champions Quebec in the semi-final game on Tuesday July 11th at 1pm AT.  Meanwhile, Manitoba battles British Columbia on Tuesday July 11th at 10:00am AT.

Quarterback Jonathan Ericson connected with Segun Adeseye for a 10 yard touchdown reception to open the scoring in the first quarter.

Matthew Peterson would tally two consecutive majors for Alberta.  His first was a seven yard rushing touchdown and the other was a 17 yard rushing major.

Defence came up with a major play in the second quarter when Zayden Velasco caught an interception and converted it into a 43 yard touchdown.

At halftime, Alberta enjoyed a 28-0 lead over Manitoba.

Only 13 seconds into the second half, Jacob Biggs returned a kickoff all the way down to the end zone for an 85 yard major for Alberta.

Pivot Reid Vankoughnett found Michael O’Shea for a five yard touchdown reception for Manitoba in the fourth quarter.  Then, Eric Adams scored the two point conversion for Manitoba.

Overall, Alberta’s defence had five interceptions in the game.

Players of the Game for Manitoba were O’Shea (offence) and Devyn Turner (defence).  Alberta’s Players of the Game  were Ericson (offence) and Velasco (defence).

“We did really well in the first half,” commented Alberta Head Coach Chris Morris after the game.  “We took care of all the little things we wanted to.”

“There was a little bit of a bump in the second half.  We didn’t take care of the last quarter like we wanted to.”

Morris credits the defence for their performance, especially in the first half.

“We had to put lots of pressure on him (Vankoughnett) quite a bit so he was running around quite a bit,” he recalled.  “He was on the run throwing the ball quite a bit.”

Despite the loss, Manitoba reflected on how resilient the team as they were challenged by Alberta throughout the day.

“The only positive I can pull out of it is that we never quit fighting,” Manitoba Head Coach Don Burrell expressed.  “We always kept trying to get on the scoreboard and we eventually did.”

“I felt like when we came back in the second half, we just kept on fighting. We wanted to get on the scoreboard and didn’t want to get shutout.  We did that. “

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