Hilltops 57, Rifles 14
The Winnipeg Rifles simply got out-gunned by the Saskatoon Hilltops on Sunday.
The hometown Toppers started off with a bang thanks to a 95-yard return for a touchdown by Datiel Fontaine on the opening kickoff, just 14 seconds into their Prairie Football Conference game Sunday afternoon at SMF Field.
They finished with a convincing 57-14 victory to improve their record to 5-0 this season.
“That,” Hilltops running back Corbin Ebben said of Fontaine’s opening TD, “was a huge play. Unbelievable.”
While Toppers head coach Tom Sargeant wasn’t in disbelief, he was just proud of the overall team effort.
“We got to build capacity — we got a lot of new players in,” said Sargeant. “We had, I think, five new starters in from the last week — we got hit with the injury bug a little bit — so we’re pretty happy with the performance.”
Despite the lopsided outcome, the Hilltops led by just one point, 7-6, after the opening quarter before scoring 21 points in each of the second and third quarters.
“Offence sort of woke up after the first three series,” noted Sargeant. (Offensive co-ordinator) coach (Shane) Reider started making some real good calls and players executed well. As I said, all in all, I’m pretty happy with the process today.”
Offensively, Saskatoon was able to establish a strong running game, something that was somewhat lacking at the start of the new season following the graduation of Boston Davidsen.
“No question it wasn’t (there),” agreed Sargeant. “Even the first couple of series, we were frustrated. We weren’t getting the push that we got but, a few tweaks here and there and a couple of different calls and then we got on a roll. It was fun to see. Everyone was blocking well and doing their job. At the end of the day, we want to be a 50-50 (run-pass) team. At the end of the year you just don’t know what the conditions are so we’re going to keep grinding on that but I feel real good with how we played today.”
Ebben led the way with 132 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries. Charles Sawi added 25 yards on six rushes.
Quarterback Trey Reider, who rushed the ball three times for six yards, completed 17 of 22 passing attempts for 170 yards and a pair of TD majors.
Fountaine, with three receptions for 36 yards, and Jeremy Funk, otherwise an offensive lineman, each had TD catches.
Drake Douglas caught all eight passes thrown his way for a total of 113 yards.
Brexton Elias, Hayden McMahon and Charlie Molder came in relief at QB in the final quarter. Elias had a 70-yard run. McMahon completed both of his passes for 34 yards. Molder scored on a 1-yard QB sneak.
Overall, Saskatoon racked up a whopping 436 yards in total offence, including 252 rushing yards.
“Corbin Ebben had his best game in our uniform,” noted Sargeant. “And Trey’s Trey. He’s a guy that gets the ball to the right people at the right time. And the O-line played well. It was a good team effort today.”
Defensively, safety Dalton Urban had a 36-yard fumble return for a TD major. He also had a pass knockdown and an interception to go along with two assisted tackles and a pair of special team tackles.
“I felt Dalton Urban was such a presence on the field,” pointed out Sargeant. “That big hit — the scoop and score — where he’s just around the ball all day. The front seven was solid. We knew No. 34 (Kaiden Banfield) is their top player so we had to contain him. With a young quarterback in, young quarterbacks usually don’t play well against us. They made some plays here and there, but, Like I said, We’ve been pretty much on point all year and really hard to score against.”
Isaac Rivalin, Jace Mowles and Preston Van Damme also had interceptions for Saskatoon, which led 28-6 at half-time.
Banfield led Winnipeg with 59 yards on 15 carries to go along with 32 yards on five catches. Asher Neufeld added 48 yards and a TD on five receptions. Xavier Mowbray hauled in three balls for 42 yards.
Josh Charison completed 24 of 39 passing attempts for 202 yards and one TD.
The key to victory, said Ebben, was “just all being on the same page, for sure. It was a big step up from last week.”
The Hilltops will play host to the Edmonton Wildcats next Sunday.
“Every week, we’re just trying to get better and stick to the game plan and just execute as well as we can,” added Ebben.
“We’re 5-and-0 but we still feel like we’ve got to get better, and become the championship team that we strive to get to.”
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