Game Summary

The Ottawa Rough Riders hosted the Birmingham Barracudas in front of 20,000 fans at Frank Clair Stadium in Ottawa this past Friday. This entertaining, high scoring game saw the Barracudas score 34 points in the fourth quarter to take the win away from the Riders. Birmingham opened the scoring as Matt Dunigan took the ball in from the 1-yard line. Luis Zendejas kicked the convert as he did on all Birmingham touchdowns. Dunigan threw for the next ’Cuda touchdown. Jason Phillips caught the 8 yard TD pass to put Birmingham ahead by 14. Ottawa fought back with Dave Dinnall scoring on a 5 yard TD run. Wayne Lammle kicked the convert. Dunigan scored his second rushing touchdown of the day for the first score of second quarter. Ottawa mounted a comeback scoring the next 31 points including Sammy Garza throwing 4 touchdown passes. The first covered 11 yards to Odessa Turner. The second, to Ray Alexander, covered 19 yards and the third, Odessa Turner’s second of the game, covered 66 yards. Wayne Lammle converted all of the touchdowns. With a 28 to 21 lead at half time, Ottawa continued on a roll. Lammle booted a 48 yard field goal before Garza threw his fourth TD pass. Ray Alexander caught this toss from 16 yards out. Soon after, Zendejas missed a 48 yard field goal attempt but scored a single making the score 38 to 22 for Ottawa at the end of the third quarter. Dunigan began to turn things around for Birmingham early in the fourth quarter. He hooked up with RB Keith Woodside for a 34 yard TD pass. Zendejas booted a 48 yard field goal to bring the ’Cudas within one TD of the Riders. Dunigan took the ball in himself for the third time this game to move Birmingham into the lead. Zendejas kicked another field goal, this time from 43 yards to extend the lead. DE Mark Ledbetter got on the score board as he recovered a Garza fumble and returned it 22 yards for the touchdown. Less than a minute later, Woodside scored his second TD of the game on a 62 yard run from scrimmage giving the Barracudas a commanding 56 to 38 lead. Ottawa managed to score one more touchdown. Garza carried the ball in from the 1-yard line and Garza hooked up with Jay Christensen for the two-point convert but it was too little too late for the Rough Riders.