ONTARIO EAST SHUT OUT BY TEAM MANITOBA ON DAY TWO

WOLFVILLE, N.S. – Ontario East suffered their second loss of the three game Football Canada Cup Championship tournament at the hands of Team Manitoba. Evan Gill led the defensive effort that shutdown Team Ontario East with 4 solo tackles; one forced fumble and recovery; and two quarterback sacks.

Ontario was unable to muster up any significant offensive output in the driving rains of the first of four games scheduled under rainy weather conditions in Nova Scotia.

With just over two minutes remaining in the opening quarter, Manitoba opened the gates of 16 unanswered points with the first of three sacks, forcing Ontario East, deep in their end, to give up the safety for two points.

Manitoba capped a five play, 20 yard drive with a 33 yard Colton Farago field goal following  team Ontario East’s fumble at centre field at the beginning of the second quarter.

Late in the second quarter, Manitoba extended the lead to 13-0 on a two play drive that was split with a pass interference penalty that allowed the drive to be capped by a nine yard toss to Thomas Cuddy. A two point conversion resulted on the mishandled kick attempt.

Manitoba opened the second half with a 10 play, 51 yard drive for an eventual 21 yard field goal by Farago to give them the eventual 16-0 victory.

Despite the rain, Manitoba was able to post 190 yards net offense compared to Ontario East’s 96.

Manitoba’s Tyler Vieira connected for 10 of 23 passes for 113 yards, with a longest of 30. Teammate Kurt Goodrich caught a team high 74 yards on 8 receptions while Jesse Fitch rushed for 77 net yards. Farago was good for two of three field goal attempts, missing only his second attempt on a blocked field goal.

Akeel Lynch was the top offensive performer for Ontario East with 33 yards rushing on six carries while teammate Mitchel Spence added 88 yards on six punt returns including the longest of the day of 40 yards.

Team Ontario East will now play the loser of the second game of the day between Ontario West and Alberta on Saturday, July 17 at 10:00 am.. Manitoba is scheduled to play at 1:00 pm against the winner of today’s second game.

Players of the Game:

Offense

Manitoba – Kurt Goodrich

Ontario East – Mitchell Spence

Defense

Manitoba – D.J. Lalama

Ontario East – Dalton Osborne