Photo courtesy of Louis Christ

Saskatoon Hilltops running back Logan Fischer was recently named Canada’s Player of the Game rushing 12 times for 56 yards as Football Canada’s Under 19 national team at the International Bowl.

It was retribution for the Canadian Bowl champ who was part of the U-19 team a year ago but was unable to play due to an injury sustained in practice.

Team Canada were unable to overcome an early deficit to Team USA, falling to their hosts by a final score of 35-0 at the 2015 International Bowl on Saturday afternoon at Maverick Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas-Arlington.

The series of games is a collaboration of the sport's national governing bodies in each country - USA Football and Football Canada - featuring top student-athletes in football's greatest annual international competition.

Canada did not get off to the quick start they were hoping for in order to neutralize a powerful American squad loaded with prospects headed big time U.S. programs such as USC, Baylor, Oklahoma and Oregon. Despite the outcome, Canada was happy with the effort put forth in Texas.

"I felt that the kids played well, they really battled," said head coach Warren Craney. "Defensively we did a really good job - I'm really proud of them. Offensively we moved the ball up and down the field but we were just unable to find the end zone."

"In the end we played against the dream team and I think these kids fought really hard and never gave up."

A member of Canada' U-18 squad last year in addition to Canada's silver medal winning Junior National Team at the 2014 IFAF U-19 World Championship in Kuwait, Daniel Nesbitt also had an excellent day tallying a game high 8 tackles and an interception

The experience for the young linebacker was a memorable one that will last a lifetime.

"Everybody here is like a brother to me now, we came together so much from the start of the week until today - our team really meshed and I think it started to show on the field," said Nesbitt. 

A veteran of both the International Bowl as well as Canada's Junior National Team program Craney thinks games like the International Bowl will continue to fuel the Canada-U.S. rivalry.

"It's always exciting," explained Craney. "In Canada, even though we've been playing football for a long time, it's still an up and coming sport in terms of trying to catch where the U.S. is and what they are doing south of the border."

"We're catching up and we're catching up in a hurry. It's not going to take too long before these games are a heck of a lot closer."

Canada's Junior National Team head coach and his coaching staff are looking towards next year as they build towards the 2016 World Championship.

Other CJFL players on the U19 roster included:
* Daniel Loggale – Edmonton Huskies
* Brett Hunchak – Calgary Colts
* Tyler Sieffert – Saskatoon Hilltops
* Liam Murphy – Saskatoon Hilltops
* Jakub Jakoubek – Calgary Colts
* Thomas Schnitzler – Saskatoon Hilltops