Home Saskatchewan-White advances to face Manitoba on Saturday

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In game 5 of the 2014 Football Canada Cup on Wednesday July 9, Saskatchewan-white defeated Nova Scotia 26-14, advancing to the 5^th place game against Manitoba on Saturday.

Saskatchewan-white opened the scoring on a 2-yard Tyler Hermann quarterback keeper. Saskatchewan widened their lead to 10 on an Alex Lenius field goal to start the second quarter.

Nova Scotia kicker Greg Hutchins got his team on the board with a rouge on a field goal that missed wide but had enough leg to go through the end zone for a single point.

Following the rouge, Nova Scotia recovered a Saskatchewan fumble to give them great field position at their own 42-yard line. On the next play, NS returned the favour as Saskatchewan recovered a fumble at their opponent’s 18-yard line. Saskatchewan capitalized on the turnover with a second Lenius field goal to make the score 13-1 heading into halftime.

Early in the 2^nd half, Nova Scotia capitalized on their second fumble recovery at midfield with a 2-yard Valardo keeper to make the score 13-8.

Saskatchewan responded to the NS score with a long kickoff return to give the home province great field position at their opponent’s 39-yard line. Following a 3^rd down pass interference penalty set-up 1^st and goal at the 1-yard line, Paul Frabacher punched the ball in to widen the Saskatchewan lead to 20-8.

Following a 3^rd and 14 conversion at the Saskatchewan 48-yard line, Valardo found receiver Greg Hutchins on a 24-yard pass to set-up first and goal at the 1-yard line. Valardo called his own number to make the final score 26-14.

“We did a lot of good things today – Team Saskatchewan is a tough football team, they played hard,” said Nova Scotia head coach, Chris Valardo.

“I give them all the credit in the world for winning that game. We didn’t execute well, that’s on us and they beat us – plain and simple.”

On the other sideline, head coach Dan Houle was happy with how his team bounced back after an opening day loss.

“We came out strong, we ran the ball well but need to work on our passing; we need to get open,” said Houle.

“I’m pretty happy with the way the guys responded – they were up, when they [Nova Scotia] came down and scored on us we responded with a kick return and kept on battling all the way down the field. Pretty good group of guys and now we’ve got to get ready for Manitoba.”

With the win, Saskatchewan-White will play Manitoba in the 5^th place game while Nova Scotia will face New Brunswick in the 7^th place game on Saturday.

Game 6 – Players of the Game

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