Wildcats Scratch Out Win Over the Colts to Close Out Season

The Edmonton Wildcats closed out the 2010 campaign with a hard fought win over their southern neighbors, the Calgary Colts 27-24 at Clarke Park on Saturday night in front of approximately 800 vocal fans who came to see their Wildcats finish the season on a winning note and they weren’t disappointed. The Wildcats finished the season with a 3-5 record for a share of 4th place with Winnipeg in the PFC. The Rifles will move on to the playoffs after beating the Cats in Winnipeg last month.

The defending PFC champion Wildcats did manage to throw an effective monkey wrench into the Colts’ hopes of finishing second overall and hosting the Regina Thunder in a conference semifinal.

Thanks to Saturday’s decision, the Colts will finish third and climb aboard the bus for a road trip to the Queen City — and a semifinal at Mosaic Stadium on either Oct. 23 or 24 against the Thunder, who carry a 5-2 record into their regular-season finale on Sunday, Oct. 17 against the Winnipeg Rifles in the ’Peg.

The Wildcats opened the scoring early in the first quarter with a single point on a missed 30yd field goal attempt. The Cats increased that lead a few minutes later with the Colts taking a safety to up the score to 3 -0. Late in the first the Colts got on the board with a 42yd field goal to tie it up at 3 going into the second quarter. The Cats answered back with 4 minutes remaining in the half to break the tie with another field goal to make it 6-3. With time winding down in the half the Colts got a pick from A. Saretsky who took it to the house sending the Colts into the locker room up 10-6.

The Wildcats came out fighting in the third quarter as the cats scored their first TD of the game with a 5 yd run by Taylor Souster to take over the lead 13-10 with 4 minutes left in the 3rd. The Wildcats opened up the lead early in the fourth quarter with an impressive 6 play 65 yd drive as Adam Seniuk finished it off with a 12yd catch from Andrew Johnson for the Cats second major of the night to up the lead to 20-10. On the ensuing kick-off though the Colts returner R Morgan took the ball 92 yds for the major to cut the Wildcats lead to 20-17. Not to be outdone the Cats answered back with a sizzling 74 yd run by Taylor Souster to get back their 10 point spread over the Colts 27-17. With less than 2 minutes left in the game the Colts fought back with a 3 play 53 yd drive with J. Long finishing it off with a 5 yd TD run to cut the lead to 27-24. But it was too little to late as the Wildcats win a nail biter to close out the season 27-24 over the Colts.

The Wildcats offense had a strong outing with the running game racking up 283 yds while passing for 132 yd. Running back Taylor Souster had a night to remember with his 22 carries for 199 yds and 2 TD’s. QB Andrew Johnson was good on 11 of 23 with 2 interceptions and 1 TD, while the Cats offense accumulated 395 total yds on the evening.

The Wildcats defense was dominant in the first half holding the Colts offense to just 2 field goals. The defensive secondary of Ray Hurrel and David Berg led the way with Safety Hurrel picking up 5 tackles and 1 knock down pass for 12 points while corner David Berg had 4 tackles 1 knock down pass and an interception for 14 points. The defensive line held the running game to 155 total yds on the night while holding Colts QB Masikewich to 4 of 11 pass attempts for 141 total yds.

This ends the regular season for the defending Champion Edmonton Wildcats who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1995. See you all next year.

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Stuart Gibson
Edmonton Wildcats Media Coordinator
media@edmontonwildcats.com
Phone (780) 221-3671 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (780) 221-3671      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
www.edmontonwildcats.com