The St. Albert Falcons hit a big play and got a fortunate bounce in the second half to edge out the Riverside Bulldogs 21-14 on Friday night in Oakland. Defense controlled the game most of the night but Cy Patterson broke a 7-7 tie with an 82-yard touchdown run with 3:48 left to go in the third quarter. The Falcons then got the ball right back on a fortunate bounce on the next kickoff. The Falcons were trying to squib the kickoff down the middle of the field on a low driver from Sam Wilber. His kick hit one of the Riverside return players in the back as they turned around to set up the return. The ball bounced hard off the Bulldog player right back to St. Albert. The Falcons took back over at their own 49-yard line. 7 plays later they punched in another score on a 1-yard plunge from quarterback Brendan Monahan to make it 21-7.

The Bulldogs did get back within a score on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Austin Kremkoski to Ethan Reicks with 11:07 left in the game. Riverside was then able to force the Falcons to punt the ball back to them with 7:23 left. The Bulldogs could only manage to drive the ball to as far as their own 40 before turning it over on downs with 3:19 left. St. Albert elected to try a 40-yard field with 2:20 left to try to seal the victory, but Sam Wilber’s kick was a bit short and wide right. Riverside had once last chance, but ended up throwing an interception on 4th down to let the Falcons secure the win.

The first half scoring came on 1-yard touchdown runs from Patterson and Kremkoski.  St. Albert picked up their first win of the season, an important one at the start of Class A District 9 play. The Falcons are now 1-2 overall. The Bulldogs fall to 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in the District. St. Albert will host Southwest Valley next week, while Riverside will travel to Tri-Center.