IFAF World Junior Championships: Canada 2 bounces back against Brazil
Canada 2 bounced back from an opening day defeat at the 2024 IFAF U20 World Junior Championships with a convincing 63-7 win over Brazil and will face either Australia or Panama to contest fifth place on Sunday.
Brazil might have suffered a second heavy defeat, but as a developing national team, celebrated scoring their first touchdown of the tournament.
“This was my target after we couldn’t score in the first match, so I’m proud of my success, but it is not my touchdown, it’s my team’s touchdown,” said Brazil MVP wide receiver Gabriel Gomes, who scored the six points. “We are a family. We had a conversation with all the guys and we were not happy with the last game, so we knew we could score a touchdown this time.”
Gomes took a 46-yard connection with quarterback Gustavo Cornelius, who threw for 97 total yards, to the end zone to reduce a 28-point deficit in the second quarter before Canada 2 opened a 35-7 halftime lead.
Canada 2 MVP receiver Cesare Rednour-Bruckman had two touchdowns called back early in the game, his spectacular opening kickoff return to the house and subsequent end zone catch both ruled out by penalties. He did breach the end zone on catches of 34 and 27 yards.
“I could hear my coach yelling something about if you don’t return this to the house you have to do 50 pushups and I don’t want to do pushups, so I returned it, but it didn’t count,” said Rednour-Bruckman. After losing that first game we realized that we’re not going to be able to be medaling anymore so now we’re just playing for pride, we’re playing for Canada, we’re playing for the name on the front of our jersey.”
Canada 2 quarterback Josh Page completed 10 of 11 pass attempts for 240 yards and 3 touchdowns, while fellow passer Elijah Barnes was 6 of 8 for 11 yards and 2 touchdowns. The running game was also effective with Brody Nelson, Page and Elyott Boissonneault, and all scoring, while 9 tagged on nine extra points.
Download the Statistics Gamebook here: G5 2024 IFAF U20 – Canada 2 vs Brazil – 26Jun2024
