Riot can’t stop the ride of the Valkyries
The Saskatoon Valkyries put down a Riot — again.
When the Valkyries beat the Regina Riot 55-27 on Sunday at Mosaic Stadium, it marked the third time in as many seasons that Saskatoon had beaten the Riot in the Western Women’s Canadian Football League’s Prairie Conference final.
The Valkyries are to go for their third straight WWCFL title Sunday, when they’re to face the Western Conference champion Lethbridge Steel in the final. Game time at Mosaic Stadium is 1 p.m.
“We’ve been working hard all season to get to this point,” Valkyries running back Julie David said after her squad beat the Riot for the eighth time in nine meetings since the WWCFL was formed in 2011.
“Regina has given us some real battles, but (Sunday) our offence executed the way we knew it could and the defence did the same.”
Riot players weren’t feeling the same way.
“It’s not the loss that sucks; it’s the fact that we’re a lot better than we showed in this game,” said defensive lineman Becky Wallis. “They got ahead early and we let it get away from us.”
Saskatoon needed just three offensive plays to score its first touchdown, on a 25-yard run by Julene Friesen.
Each of the Valkyries’ next two possessions lasted just one play (David scampered 95 yards for a TD on the first and Friesen ran 65 yards for a major on the second) before a fouryard touchdown run by quarterback Candace Bloomquist completed Saskatoon’s fourth possession. Rienna Rueve’s fourth convert made it 28-0 after the first quarter.
“The same thing happened when we played them at (their) home and they got a big jump on us,” Regina running back Chantel Morrison said, referring to a game May 26 in Saskatoon in which the Riot rallied from an early deficit before falling 48-45.
“I don’t know if it’s how we prepare or if our heads aren’t in it. I don’t think it deflated us, though. We were still confident that we could come back.”
The Valkyries kept building on their lead in the first half, getting majors from David (11-yard pass from Bloomquist) and Friesen (25-yard pass from Bloomquist) and a convert from Rueve to lead 41-0 at the break.
The Riot scored the first 20 points of the second half on touchdowns by Mallory Starkey (four-yard run), Morrison (88-yard run) and Erin Banbury (31-yard pass from Aimee Kowalski) and two converts from Madison Genoway, but the Valkyries responded in the fourth.
David (20-yard run) and Marci Kiselyk (14-yard pass from Bloomquist) supplied the TDs and Rueve added a pair of converts.
Carmen Agar recorded the Riot’s final touchdown, scoring on a three-yard run with two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
David rushed 11 times for 177 yards and caught six passes for 55 yards, while Friesen added nine carries for 129 yards. Bloomquist was 15-for-19 passing for 178 yards.
Morrison gained 153 yards on 10 carries for the Riot, which got three catches for 79 yards from Banbury.
“We really thought we had it this year,” said Wallis, whose team beat the Valkyries 15-7 on May 12 — Saskatoon’s first-ever (and only) loss in the WWCFL — and finished the regular season in a tie with them for first place in the conference at 3-1.
“We have improved so much. We’re such a different team than we were two years ago.”
Even so, the Valkyries are the ones going to the league final — and they get to play it on the Riot’s home field.
“It’s exciting that it’s here where the (CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders) play because I cheer for the Riders,” said Valkyries defensive end Lauren Bourdon. “It’s still our home turf in Saskatchewan. We’re hoping to have the province behind us.”
“Last year it was fun to play (the final) in our city, but this year it’s here and we’re looking forward to it,” David added. “Regina is our rival in the WWCFL, but a lot of us are teammates on other teams and we’re friends away from the league. It’ll be fun to play here.”