No. 1 Colts hosting tough Wildcats
- September 13, 2012
Jeff MacKinnon Media coordinator
Adam Blasetti’s tweets are always short and to the point.
“Big game this week. Gotta have a great work week,” the Calgary Colts offensive coordinator posted as the top-rated team in the Canadian Junior Football League headed back to the field in preparation for what is indeed an important Sunday afternoon at McMahon Stadium.
The marquee matchup in the country takes place Sunday, Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. in Calgary as the country’s top ranked Colts take on No. 4 Edmonton Wildcats while attempting to keep hold of first place in the Prairie Football Conference.
The Colts are unbeaten at 4-0 while the only loss suffered by the Wildcats came at the hands of Calgary at Clarke Park Aug. 26. Andrew Fabian tossed a five-yard scoring touchdown to quarterback Jeremy Long on a fake field goal with 4:27 on the clock to secure the win for the Colts.
Calgary is coming off a 32-9 victory at home against the winless Edmonton Huskies that saw the hosts pile up more than 400 yards offence, which did not leave their coaches too terribly impressed, both because it came against one of the PFC’s weaker members and because there were some unnecessary turnovers.
“Offensively it was a little frustrating because it was a ‘wind’ game. But you still have to execute no matter which way the wind is blowing,” said head coach John Stevens.
The Wildcats feature the league’s biggest offensive weapon thus far in runningback Jordan Samoil, who is averaging 8.68 yards per carry with a league-best eight touchdowns in four games. But, Samoil was held to 66 yards rushing by the Winnipeg Rifles last weekend
The Colts are led by Chucks Okafor, who has five TDs and a solid 4.27 yards per carry average.
“The Wildcats are obviously a very formidable opponent,” Stevens, who is also the Colts defensive coordinator, said.
“Defensively they give us huge challenges. They’ve got a good offence and a good defence. This game has big playoff implications.”
As the regular season enters its second half the front-runners now begin jockeying for a home game in the semifinals. Four of the league’s six teams will advance to the playoffs. Needless to say everyone wants to be at home throughout the playoffs.
“We have two consecutive home games and we need to win those games. If we do that we will be in pretty good shape for the rest of the year,” Stevens said.
The Colts are expected to have their other top running threat, D.J. Whetton, back in the lineup this week. He missed the Huskies contest with an undisclosed injury. Whetton has 110 yards rushing in 2012 on just 11 carries, for a 10.00 average.
Tickets for Sunday’s game are available at the east entrance to McMahon prior to kickoff.
BRIEFY — Fabian leads the PFC in punting with a 39.83 average on six punts and is 3-for-3 in field goal attempts, with his longest being 44 yards . . . The Colts lead the conference with a takeaway/giveaway ratio of plus-10. The Wildcats are the only other team with a positive ratio (6) . . . After this week the Colts will head to Winnipeg Sunday, Sept. 23 for face the winless Rifles. That game has a noon Mountain time start.