Sask-Green survives late Alberta push, advancing to gold medal final Saturday against Ontario
Under the Wednesday night lights, Saskatchewan-green defeated Alberta 40-32 to advance to the gold medal game against Ontario.
On Saskatchewan’s opening possession they took an early one point lead on a field goal attempt that went wide but had enough leg to go through the end zone.
Alberta replied early in the 2nd quarter as quarterback Alex Basilis connected with Trey Kellogg on a 62-yard touchdown pass.
Sask replied on the following series. Seizing momentum from a converted third down on a broken punt attempt in which punter Eric Despins improvised, rushing for a first down at the Alberta 29-yard line. Cordell Kadash punched the ball in from the goal line to seize the lead 8-7.
Alberta replied with under 2 minutes to play in the first half, as quarterback Alex Basilis found receiver Jacob Janke on a 27-yard touchdown strike to take the lead 14-8.
Saskatchewan re-took the lead 15-14 on a goal line run by quarterback Cordell Kadash.
A late Benjamin Whitling interception following the score gave Saskatchewan another chance to increase their lead before halftime. With less than 20 seconds on the clock, quarterback Sawyer Buettner found his favourite target Kade Belyk to widen the home province’s advantage 22-14 heading into halftime.
To start the second half Sask added a field goal, a Ben Getzlaf receiving touchdown and a third Cordell Kardish goal line run to widen their advantage 40-14.
Alberta narrowed the deficit 40-21 as quarterback Alex Basilis found Justin Dasiuk on a 24-yard touchdown strike. They further chipped away adding a rouge and a Myles Brown touchdown run with just over 3 minutes to play to get within 8 points, 40-32.
Following a botched Saskatchewan snap on a 3rd down punt attempt, Alberta gained possession with just over 35 seconds to play in the game at midfield but were unable to find the end zone.
“Today’s game came down to about two minutes [at the end] of the second half when Saskatchewan scored two touchdowns on us. We made some mental mistakes, they played a heck of a game,” said Alberta head coach Bryan Brandford.
“We knew their game plan coming in and we didn’t execute as well as we could have. Our kids played right until the end – we had a shot to win or at least tie but we just couldn’t put it together.”
Despite a late scare, Saskatchewan is excited to achieve their goal of playing in the gold medal game at home.
“Alberta played us tough, it was a bit of a rollercoaster for us but our kids got better from that,” said Sask-green head coach Kyle Stroeder.
“We’ve got some stuff to work on and we are going to get that looked after. We’re going to be prepared to play for the national championship on Saturday.”
Brandford and the rest of Team Alberta is excited to face Quebec for a fourth consecutive medal game, even though in 2014 it won’t be the gold medal game.
“They are a very solid and fast team – we’ve played them the last three years and we hoping to avoid them this year but we’re excited to play them and we told our kids that there’s nothing wrong with being third in the country. We’re looking forward to going after that bronze medal.”
Game 8 – Players of the game
| Saskatchewan-Green | Alberta | |
| Offensive | #4 QB Sawyer Buettner (MJ Peacock / Moose Jaw) | #7 QB, Alex Basilis ( St. Mary’s/ Calgary) |
| Defensive | # 56 DL, Nathan Cherry (Aden Bowman / Saskatoon) | #99 DL, Dexter Da Silva (Harry Ainlay / Edmonton) |
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