October 11, 2024 Victoria, BC – The defending BC champion Rebels pulled off what the CJFL rankings would say was an improbable upset on Saturday, beating the second-seeded Rams in Langley to advance to their third straight Cullen Cup appearance.
Playing defensive back position, kicker, and punt returner position all season, Mt. Douglas Rams alumnus Gio Linuzzi would make the difference for the Rebels, activated for the first time this season in an offensive role as running back, adding a new threat to a Rebels offense that had gone cold until Saturday afternoon at McLeod Stadium.
The Rebels would take the lead in the first quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns stunning the stingy Rams defence. The home side answered with two touchdowns of their own in the second quarter, but the Rebels added a 38-yard field goal by Gio Linuzzi and held a three-point lead at the half.
In the third, the Rams scored the only points of the quarter and took a 21-17 leading into the final frame, but it was the Rebels’ defence that didn’t allow another point the rest of the way, and their offence tallied eight and secured the win.
Despite being banged up Rebels quarterback Ethan Pickard completed 14 of 24 for 278 yards and found Kwame Franklin for the game-opening touchdown. Pickard also rushed for a score, as did Linuzzi. As a matter of fact, Linuzzi barely came off the field and showed his athleticism, rushing 19 times for 124 yards and a touchdown, kicked the only field goal, added a convert, eight punts and played a shutdown defensive back position intercepting a pass and assisted on a tackle.
Pickard’s favourite target was Zion Brown who caught four passes for 127 yards, one of which was an 81-yard bomb.
In the fourth quarter the Rebels outscored the Rams 8-0 for the comeback win, as fans on both sides of the ball would hold their collective breaths.
Defensively the Rebels forced five interceptions off Rams back-up quarterback Hunter Norman following an apparent injury to Palaina Hooper who didn’t take a snap this game. Hooper was outstanding during the regular season and was definitely missed in this semifinal.
Isaiah Boutin recorded three of the five Rebels interceptions and had 6.5 tackles. As a team the Rebels collected four sacks and held the Rams to under 100 yards on the ground.
Even though Norman threw five interceptions, he still completed 21 of 30 passes for 347 yards and threw two touchdowns to Isaiah Edwards and another to Gob Deng.
With road victory the Rebels return to the Cullen Cup as defending champions and will head to the Okanagan to meet the Sun in the BCFC title game for the third straight season next weekend. The winner heads to the Prairie Conference for the CJFL National Semi-Final game on October 27th.
