Aigles fly past Ti-Cats

Varennes 18 | Verdun 2

By Andrew Soong

The Varennes Aigles downed the Verdun Ti-Cats 18-2 in their season opener Sunday at Arthur Therrien Park in Verdun.

“We are happy with the win and the team worked hard with good team spirit,” said Aigles’ head coach Marc Perrier about his team’s first meeting against the Ti-Cats. “We haven’t played against them [Ti-Cats] for 2-3 years and we didn’t know what to expect.”

Both teams were deadlocked and scoreless in the opening quarter of the Sunday afternoon match-up held under a light drizzle. In the opening minutes of the second quarter the Aigles started a rally that included a fourth down run into the Ti-Cats’ red zone by Axel Tetreault that lead to a touchdown by teammate Guillaume Perrier. According to Coach Perrier “we were on a roll.”

The Aigles were forced to work for every yard that was gained on the Ti-Cats’ home turf that included stopping the extra point after Perrier’s touchdown. Despite being intercepted deep in the Aigles’ end zone, the Ti-Cats pushed back in the closing minutes of the first half with Ti-Cat Jeffery Pigeon who sacked the Aigles’ quarterback in the end zone to score a two-point safety. According Ti-Cat head coach Richard Ferland “we are trying to rebuild a tradition [of football].”

“It was the first time since May that we had a full staff and we did not know what to expect, but it could have been worse,” said Ferland about the team’s first season growing pain. “Now we know what to correct and we will work on this in the coming week’s coming practice.”

Both teams continued to struggle into the second half with the Aigles defending their slim lead against the home team. Slowly, the Aigles chipped away at the Ti-Cats’ defence to score in the opening minutes of the final quarter with two more touchdowns from Perrier. However, all three Aigles conversions were defiantly stopped by the TiCats that allowed the final 18-2 score.

“It was a good game and we played better than we did last year,” said Ti-Cats game MVP Jose Luis Castro. “I think that the team could have done better, but we still worked hard on the field.”