Nova Scotia wins Maritime battle against neighbouring NB

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In the opening game on the final day of the 2014 Football Canada Cup on Saturday, Nova Scotia took a 42-0 halftime lead to win 45-0 against New Brunswick. With the win, Nova Scotia finishes the tournament in 7^th position.

Nova Scotia took an early 9-0 lead after New Brunswick conceded a safety followed by a 15-yard Michael Ogilvie end zone plunge.

A Thomas Hoyt 11-yard jet sweep touchdown run on a made the score 15-0 at 1:17 of the opening quarter.

Following a single and conceded safety, backup quarterback Cameron Valardo connected with Greg Hutchins on a 62-yard touchdown to widen the Nova Scotia lead 25-0 with 6 minutes to play in the opening half.

Starting at the NB 25-yard line following a Jon Main interception, quarterback Duncan Patterson found Thomas Hoyt over the middle and forced his way into the end zone to make the score 33-0.

Patterson found Valardo who was lined up as a receiver to make the score 40-0.

Following back-to-back Hutchins’ singles made the score 42-0 at the half, New Brunswick conceded a second half safety to make the final score 44-0.

Despite the final score New Brunswick head coach Chris Hopkins is happy with where the province’s provincial program is headed.

“Were still building the foundation and culture of Football NB and this was the first step. To have the opportunity and expose our kids to top level talent in the country is exciting in its own,” said Hopkins. “I know the guys got better every rep.”

“It’s really exciting to see the guys come back – I think we have 13 guys coming back next year which we are really excited about. The other guys that participated played hard throughout the whole tournament and we’re happy they showed some character and learned a lot along the way.

Nova Scotia got their first win on Sunday and Nova Scotia head coach Chris Valardo attributed a large part of their success to establishing the run early.

“I thought we executed much better – our offense moved the ball really well from the start of the game. Our defense played today and we won the turnover battle,” said Valardo.

“We certainly won the kicking game – [our kicker] Greg Hutchins had a great game and we ran the ball really well. That was the big difference, we established the run early and put some points up on the board – it’s easy to play with a lead.”

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