Alberta offense running on all cylinders in game 1 of Canada Cup against NB

In game one of the 2014 Football Canada Cup at Griffiths Stadium at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, three-time defending champion Alberta scored on their first 8 possessions to push the score to 55-0 at halftime against New Brunswick.

New Brunswick’s offense struggled to find its rhythm against a tough Alberta defense who forced 2-and-outs throughout the first half.

Alberta opened the game with a goal-line run by Sam Clayton to take an early 7-0. After forcing a 2-and-out on NB’s first possession, Alberta quarterback Alex Basilis broke a tackle at the 5-yard line to widen the lead to 13. New Brunswick special teams limited the damage by blocking the Alberta extra-point to keep the score at 13.

Alberta poured it on to close out the first half, adding touchdowns from Jacob Janke, Landon Rosene, Tristan Getzinger, Sam Clayton, and two rushing touchdowns by Myles Browne.

After a Janke punt return to the 3-yard line, Landon Rosene ran the ball off-tackle to make the score 62-0 after the extra-point.

Alberta added a 59-yard passing touchdown from second string quarterback Des Catallier to receiver Kelton Bailey to make the final score 76-0.

“It was a good starting game for us and we played quite well,” said Alberta head coach, Bryan Brandford.

“We are happy with what happened but have a couple of players banged up. Other than that it was a good effort by our guys.”

Despite the win New Brunswick head coach, Chris Hopkins was happy with his team’s improvement over the course of its first 2014 Canada Cup contest.

“I’m happy the guys battled hard non-stop. We can in with the goal of getting better every rep with maximum effort and that’s exactly what we did.”

We played four quarters of football, got better every rep. Every rep throughout with week is going to make us better and that’s what this tournament is about – changing the culture of Football New Brunswick. It starts here in the first game and we are really looking forward to Wednesday.”

Game 1 – Most Valuable Players
	New Brunswick (Team / Hometown)	Alberta (Team / Hometown)
Offensive:	#11 QB Gordon Brown (Saint John HS / Saint John, NB)	#1 REC, Jacob Janke (St. Mary’s / Calgary, AB)
Defensive:	#28 DB, Kyle Baxter (Bernice McNaughton HS / Moncton, NB)	# 52 DL, Bobby Sugai (Raymond / Raymond)