Photo courtesy of Matthew Hamilton

The Winnipeg Rifles and Edmonton Huskies showed they were road warriors last weekend pulling out the victory.

Winnipeg Rifles 25
Edmonton Wildcats 17

Saturday night the Edmonton Wildcats host their 2017 home opener at Clarke Park and played an excellent first half but ultimately fell to the Winnipeg Rifles 25-17.

The Wildcats scored all 17 of their points in the first half getting three field goals from Tanner Holt and a touchdown run from quarterback Justin Swedish.

The Rifles kept things close in the first half scoring a pair of touchdowns but it was their 11 point third quarter that secured the win.  Running back Micheal Ritchott rushed 16 times for 133 yards and had a major as did Odun Ogidan on the ground. 

Meanwhile Alexander Tachinski caught a touchdown pass from Jonathan Remple.

Defensively the Rifles sacked the Wildcat quarterbacks nine times.  Both Samson Abbott and Hayden Nellis each collect three.  On the other side the Wildcats were led by Jayden Dalke who had 11 tackles and a sack.

The Rifles (2-1) will host the Calgary Colts (1-2) in a massive game on Saturday night, while the Wildcats (0-3) have a huge rivalry game against the Edmonton Huskies (3-0) on Sunday afternoon.

Edmonton Huskies 57
Calgary Colts 22

On Sunday afternoon the Edmonton Huskies and Calgary Colts combined for 864 offensive yards in the Huskies 57-22 victory.

Through the air Huskies’ starting quarterback Brad Launhardt was 21 of 33 for 300 yards and threw four touchdown passes.  He found Connor Bergensen and Tanner Buchanan each twice for majors.  In all eight different receivers caught passes.

On the ground both Jimmie Airey and Connor Mickel scored a rushing touchdown.

The Huskies defence also got on the board thanks to Justin Hodinsky’s 68 yard pick six.

The Colts got behind early and had a tough time climbing out the hole that was dug.  Quarterback Bailey Wasdal completed 22 passes for 278 yards and threw a pair of touchdown passes hauled in by Jesse Kuntz and Brandon MacIsaac.

Dylan Minshull also got the Colts on the board with a major.

This coming weekend the Huskies (3-0) will play their crosstown rivals the Edmonton Wildcats (0-3) on Sunday afternoon, while the Colts (1-2) travel to Winnipeg to face the Rifles (2-1) on Saturday night.