FCC2019: Anderson tallies two majors to power British Columbia over Nova Scotia

By Ameeta Vohra

Kingston, ON (July 10, 2019) – British Columbia and Nova Scotia kicked off the second game day of the 2019 Football Canada Cup.

In a highly competitive consolation round game, Noah Anderson scored twice to lead British Columbia to a 38-17 win over Nova Scotia on Wednesday at Queen’s University’s Richardson Stadium.

British Columbia will move on to play the fifth place game on Saturday July 13, 2019 against the winner of the Manitoba/New Brunswick game.  Game time will be 12:00 p.m. EST. Meanwhile, Nova Scotia will battle the loser of the Manitoba/New Brunswick game on Saturday July 9, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. EST.

The game was marked by discipline and miscommunication but also displayed flashes of offensive, defensive and special team brilliance on the field.

Nova Scotia linebacker Connor Burns made a beautiful defensive play as he sacked British Columbia sack Keyshawn Dorsey only 2:12 into the game.

British Columbia would strike first on the scoreboard as Dorsey handed off the ball to Noah Anderson, who rushed into the end zone to tally a major.

At the end of the first quarter on 3^rd and 3, Nova Scotia quarterback Allan Young connected with running back Andrew Floyd for the first down.  On the next play, Cherokee Robinson had a great 15 yard gain to position Nova Scotia for a score.

However, Young threw an interception to British Columbia defensive back Kai Thomas who sprinted all the way down the field for a 119 yard touchdown. Both the interception and touchdown were called back as British Columbia were called for a roughing the passer penalty.

Just 2:12 into the quarter, Young passed off the ball to Floyd for a four yard rushing major.  Owen MacRae’s PAT was good to tie British Columbia 7-7.

On the punt return, Nova Scotia attempted a short punt and receiver Saul Chernin caught the ball. However, Nova Scotia drew a flag and that resulted in the punt being redone again.

With 6:50 remaining before the half, Young threw another interception to into the hands of linebacker Vincenzo Nardulli who ran into the end zone for a 25 yard score for British Columbia.

Liam Reid extended British Columbia’s lead when he added a 15 yard field goal with 3.4 second left in the quarter.

At halftime, British Columbia held a 17-7 lead over Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia came out of the half starting to gain some composure.  At the 2:00 mark of the third quarter, Young fired off the ball to receiver John Lilley who had a beautiful sideline catch to get Nova Scotia deep in British Columbia’s territory at the 35 yard line.

On the next snap, Mathieu Cote caught the ball inside the 20 yard line. However, Nova Scotia’s inconsistency of finishing plays reared its ugly head again and the team had to settle for a field goal to pull the team within a touchdown of British Columbia.

British Columbia opted for a quarterback change as Jay Mather saw his first action in the game and delivered instantaneously on his first drive of the game.  With five minutes remaining in the third quarter, Mather passed off the ball to Anderson who sprinted down the end zone for a 28 yard touchdown, his second major of the game.

Almost a minute and a half into the fourth quarter, Nolan Ulm tallied a 25 yard touchdown to extend British Columbia’s lead by 21 points.

With 4:31 left in the game, Nova Scotia’s Thomas Keinknecht rushed into the end zone for a touchdown.  With the one point conversion by MacRae successful, Nova Scotia pulled closer to British Columbia on the scoreboard.

Hoping to make a big play, MacRae opted for a short punt return, but Chernin could not get the ball and it ended up out of bounds at British Columbia’s own 54 yard line.

Young tried to get Nova Scotia’s offence going, but was sacked by British Columbia’s defence led on the play by linebacker Ciaran Davies.

Running back Andy Ofosuhene scored a touchdown to put the game out of reach with 1:28 left in the game.

Offensive Players of the Game were running back Noah Anderson (British Columbia) and quarterback Allan Young (Nova Scotia).  Defensive Players of the Game were defensive back Corbin Grant (British Columbia) and linebacker Dequon Downey (Nova Scotia).

For British Columbia, it was a total team effort that was the key to victory on Wednesday.

“I think our guys played well; they came out together and played as a team,” British Columbia head coach Cory Philpot said. “That’s what you want your team to do.”

I am happy with them; we’ll go back and look at film and get ready for the next game and come out and do what we need to do to win on Saturday.”

While Nova Scotia was disappointed of the outcome considering how close they came a couple of times of taking the lead during the game, discipline and errors dictated their play.  While they showed improvement on the field on Wednesday, the team needs to regroup so they are prepared to play their final game of the tournament on Saturday.

“Our kids played hard; at times I thought we deserved a better fate but we made too many mental mistakes and took too many penalties,” commented Nova Scotia head coach Dave Van den Heuvel after the game.  “The biggest thing we wanted to do is that we competed hard today for four quarters today and that was something we were focused on and wanted to improve upon from our first game.”