skip navigation

5 Takeaways - Week 1

By Ryan Watters (@ryan2tswatters), 08/26/21, 8:45AM PDT

Share

Five interesting facts taken from Week 1

Following Week 1 of the CJFL season a number of interesting facts came to light as all three games unfolded. Here are the 5 takeaways.

History Made

Since 1883 games in the CJFL have featured male rosters.  Thousands of games and players have played under the CJFL umbrella but on Sunday history was made when Emmarae Dale of the Saskatoon Hilltops became the first woman to ever play in a CJFL regular season game.  She was an important part of the Hilltops special teams and did collect a tackle.

Road Warriors

Well so much for home field advantage in Week 1 as each road team left with a victory.  The road warriors outscored their home opponents 91-42 in the three games with only one game in doubt until the final buzzer.

The Streak Continues

Quietly the Saskatoon Hilltops have won 32 straight road games, including road playoff wins.  They continue to be a machine away from SMF Field with their last road loss coming on August 17, 2014.  The game in Edmonton during Week 1 was in doubt but somehow on the final play of the game they found a way to win with a kick through the end zone to keep the streak alive.

XX

As expected in a Week 1 some of the play we saw was a bit sloppy which was understandable since most of the players hadn’t played a live game in over a year and a half.  The defences were solid and created a grand total of 20 takeaways, something the coaching staff of each team will look to cleanup heading into Week 2.

Ground Attack

Most of the offences during Week 1 relied on the ground assault as we saw four different running backs hit the century mark, something that will make the offensive lineman very happy.   Carter McLean of the Hilltops led the way with 167 yards, followed by Alex Gayle of the Huskies and his 157 yards.    In Winnipeg Ryland Leichert of the visiting Regina Thunder galloped for 146 yards while Nathan Zacharias of the Edmonton Wildcats collected 118.