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Prairie Conference Playoff Rewind

By Ryan Watters (@ryan2tswatters), 10/20/19, 9:15PM PDT

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The Hilltops and Huskies advance in the CJFL playoffs

Photo courtesy of Louis Christ Photography

Edmonton Huskies 20
Regina Thunder 17

The Huskies punched their ticket to the Prairie Conference final for the second straight year with a three point road victory over the Thunder on Sunday.

The defence stood tall for the Huskies, after the offence scored 15 of their 20 points in the first quarter.  They held the Thunder to just 70 yards rushing and focused on slowing down the passing attack.  They forced three turnovers led by Justin Hodinsky who had two interceptions and five solo tackles.  Team leading tackler Tadi Siwira collected another three stops, two assisted tackles and had a knockdown.

On the offensive side quarterback Declan O’Flaherty was outstanding completing 29 passes for 375 yards and a pair of first quarter touchdown passes.  His favourite target was Sam Clayton who hauled in 11 receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown.  Ronnie Oling also had a major on five catches.

The Thunder started rolling in the second half, scoring 13 of their 17 points but still came up a bit short.  Quarterback Blake Scherle had a big game completing 21 passes for 294 yards and had an 18 yard rushing touchdown.  But it was his two interceptions that hurt the Thunder.  Running back Maxwell Foerster had the other touchdown for the home side.

The defence did hold the Huskies to just 89 yards on the ground, but it was the passing game they struggled to stop.  Brandyn Martin was the best defender on the field with a game high nine solo tackles while Davin Williamson had four and a knockdown.

The Huskies move onto the Prairie Conference title game in Saskatoon on Sunday in a rematch of last year’s championship game.  The winner will head to Ontario for the CJFL National Semi-Final.

Saskatoon Hilltops 31
Edmonton Wildcats 7

The Hilltops jumped out to a 14 point lead in the first quarter and never looked back.  As they do so often the ground game controlled the play led by Ben Abrook and his 29 carries for 153 yards and he scored two touchdowns.  In all the Hilltops chewed up 229 yards on the ground.

Quarterback Tyler Hermann seemed content to hand the ball off.  However when they needed a pass he was there and more often than not made a positive play by completing 10 passes for 125 yards and threw two touchdowns in his playoff debut as a starter.   Both touchdown passes were caught by Rylan Kleiter, which were the only balls he caught on the afternoon.

Defensively the Hilltops forced five turnovers and Jared Giddings had two of them, including intercepting a pass and forcing and recovering a fumble.  Evan Mantyka had eight tackles and Jesse McNabb had six and shared a sack.

The Wildcats tried to tie up the Hilltops defensively by starting Devin Desormeau at quarterback rather than Dante Tabacu.  Desormeau had a decent game completing 24 passes for 200 yards and found Tanner Holt for a second quarter touchdown.

On the defensive side Rony Bakehe had four tackles and the lone sack while Tony Savchuk intercepted a pass.

The Hilltops will now host the Edmonton Huskies for the second straight season in the Prairie Conference final on Sunday at 1:00pm at SMF Field.