Saturday afternoon marks the second time in three years that the Edmonton Stallions will be competing for the National Championship.  In 2007 the Stallions travelled to Oshawa, Ont. to battle the NFC Champions, the Sault Ste. Marie Steelers.  That battle did not end well for the Stallions as they lost 59 - 10.  Fast forward two seasons and the Stallions are in the show, and again against the Sault Ste. Marie Steelers.  This time the game is being hosted by the Steelers in the Soo.

Tickets have been selling fast as they have already pre sold 3500 tickets, and fully expect the remaining 3500 tickets to sell on gameday.  To get to this point again, the Stallions took the long route.  Finishing 4th in regular season play, the Stallions hosted a 1/4 final game against ther cross town rivals, the 5th place Parkland Panthers.  The Stallions won that game  25 - 16 and advanced to the semifinals. 

Here the Stallions travelled to the 1st place Lloydminster Vandals for a 3rd time in the 2009 season.  After losing there first two meetings 14 -0 and 39 - 24, the Stallions came out on top defeating the Vandals 27 - 23.  Up next for the Stallions were there arch Nemesis, the Calgary Wolfpack for the 2009 AFL championship.

This game was played in Calgary and in order to play the NFC best, the Stallions had to defeat the best.  And thats exactly what the Stallions did winning 39 - 32, thus capturing there 2nd AFL championship.  Now in the Stallions sights are the NFC champions, the Steelers.  And the Stallions plan on bringing there "A" game this year!

Your 4th place Stallions are battling there nemesis, the Calgary Wolfpack on Sunday for the AFL Championship.  The Stallions have had to do it the hard way with a 1/4 final win against the Parkland Panthers and a semifinal win against the 1st place Lloydminster Vandals.  The wolfpack too, have had the long road with a 1/4 final win against the Calgary Gators and a semifinal win against the Grande Prairie Drillers.

The Stallions are coming into the game on various HIGH notes.  The return of QB Willie King is diffinatley one of the High liners.  The swarming play of the Stallions Defence, with 12 QB sacks and 4 INT's in this seasons playoffs, and their Special teams play should be enough to cause a few sleepless nights in the 'Pack camp.  But, the Wolfpack also have there positives.  Such as the League Passing leader and AFL career passing leader Darryl Leason.

Sundays game sets up to possibly go down as one of the greatest AFL championship games ever.  Right up with the 2004 AFL final, the Stallions 1st time to the show, and against the Wolfpack.  That game ended 51 - 46 for the 'Pack, on a last minute drive to score the winning TD.  The Stallions also made it to the Final in 2005, and again against the Wolfpack.  This game was also a defeat, this time in the friendly confines of Foote Field.  Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm.  Kickoff is at 3 pm.

This Saturday marks the 3rd time the Stallions will play in a AFL 1/4 game.  There previous two were against the Vandals in 2007, and against the Panthers in 2008.  Both of those games were on the road.  This season the Stallions host the 1/4 game and again they battle the Panthers.

The Stallions will be looking for there A game offensively against a strong Panther Defence.  Leading the charge will be Stallions QB Travis Tyler.  Tyler is coming off a strong 2009 regular season, throwing for 1201 yards and 10 TD's.  7 in his last 3 games.  Catching those passes has been WR Orrin Bailey, whos team leading 28 catches for 489 yards and 3 TD's is his career best as a Stallion and 3rd all time in both catches and yards in a single season.

The Stallions defensively will be looking to there Defence to stop the likes of RB Craig Carr and QB Jordie Holton.  DE's Tim Siewert and Guillaume Petit combine for 11 Stallions QB sacks.  And LB Yuri Wishloff, with his team leading 47 tackles plans to be all over the field.  And look for the Stallions secondary of Rio Wells, JR Larose, Grant Shaw and Jordan Heathcote to make some waves aswell.

The Stallions last meeting against the Panthers was a win, in a shortened game, 9 - 7.  The Stallions all timne record against the Panthers is 2 - 1, and the Stallions are 2 - 0 in 1/4 games.

Saturday afternoon marks the end of the Stallions 2009 regular season.  The Stallions travel to Lloydminster to battle the 1st place Vandals in what should be a highly entertaining game, with Playoff implications on the line.

The Stallions come into the match up in 4th place, but after a win Saturday and some help from the Gators can finish as high as 1st, giving the Stallions a 1st round bye.  However the Stallions can also finish no worse than 4th place, leaving them with a 1st round home game.

The last time these 2 teams met was on June 20th, when the Vandals won 14 - 0 in the game nicknamed "The Mudbowl".

The Stallions (4-2) battle the Seahawks (0-6) this Friday in makes for a interesting game with playoff implications on the line for the Stallions.  Winning this game all but secures the Stallions a home game for the AFL quarter finals and pus them within striking distance of a top 3 finish.

Last game the Stallions defeated the Panthers, and thru the game the Defence was led by LB Yuri Wishloff.  Yuri accounted for 8.5 tackles and 1 safety tackle.  Offensively the Stallions RB Manny Gordon rushed for 75 yards on 10 carries.  The Stallions won't be taking the Seahawks lightly and are playing Manny and Yuri against the Hawks.

The Stallions are 3 -0 lifetime against the Seahawks, outscoring them 160 - 7.  Last season the Stallions won 42 - 7, in 2007 won 43 - 0 and in 2006 won 75 - 0.

Your 3-2 Stallions are battling there cross town rival Panthers (3-2) on Saturday night.  The Stallions are coming into this match with a impressive win against the former 1st place GP Drillers last week.  The Stallions exploded defensively last week with 8 sacks and 5 int's.  Leading the way was the AFL week 5 defensive player of the week Yuri Wishloff.  Yuri led all Stallions with 11 tackles, 3 sacks and 3 tackles for a loss. 

If the Stallions hope to continue there winning ways this week they will need a big game from RB Manny Gordon.  So far this season Manny has rushed for 161 yards and 2 TD in limited play, but with the injury bug starting to creep into the Stallions backfield expect to see #6 carry the rock more.

Last season the Stallions finished 1 - 1 against the Panthers, losing in there season finale 27 - 10.  However the very next week played again, in the Quarter finals, and this time won 27 - 12. 

The Stallions are hoping to get back onto the winning track this weekend when they host the First place Drillers.  The Stallions lost a tough one 2 weeks ago to the Calgary Wolfpack 24 - 21.  In that game the Stallions rushed for 198 yards and 2 TD.  They are hoping that the RB's can continue there pounding ways this weekend.  In limited games so far, Manny Gordon has rushed for 131 yards and 2 TD and QB Travis Tyler has also ran a little.  Travis has tallied up 154 yards.  But Travis' main means on attack is thru the air where so far this season he has thrown for 689 yards.

Defensively the Stallions have the second best defense in the points allowed catagory, however face a great aerial attack this weekend from AFL all star QB Nathan Aldred.  To counter this threat the Stallions will be depending on there stars to shine.  LB Yuri Wishloff leads the team in tackles with 25.5 tackles and has a sack too.  Last game FS JR Larose tallied 6.5 tackles and DB Rio Wells shutdown his receivers all day.

The Stallions have had success in there past against the Drillers, with a all time record of 4 - 2, with a 198 - 91 points for.  Last season the Stallions lost to the Drillers in there only meeting 19 - 17.

This Saturday the Stallions travel to Calgary for a rematch of last seasons semifinal match up.  This time around the Stallions are led by QB Travis Tyler and WR Ray Natress, both of whom were not in last years game.  Travis so far this season is 25 / 48, 579 yrds, 3 /3.  Stallions leading receivers are Ray Natress 6 catches for 231 yards and 1 TD, and Orrin Bailey 10 catches for 219 yards and 1 TD.

Defensively the Stallions are solid with the addition of FS JR Larose and the return of DB Rio Wells and a healthy LB Yuri Wishloff.  Yuri has 20 tkls so far this season and 1 sack.  Leading the D Line is DE Tim Siewert with 3 sacks.

The 2 - 0 Stallions make there way East on Sunday for a clash with the 2 - 0 Lloydminster Vandals, for what has become a potential 1st place showdown early into the 2009 campaign.  The Stallions easily defeated there week 2 opponents 48 - 13.  Meanwhile the Vandals also beat up there opponents.  This week will be the Vandals first home game and anticipate a sold out field.

Leading the way for the Stallions will be QB Travis Tyler.  So far this season Travis has been doing well against his foes, after taking the reigns of the Offence when QB Willie King went down with a Hip Dislocation halfway thru the season opener 2 weeks ago.  Tyler has passed for 534 yards and 3 TD thru 1 & 1/4 games.  On the other end has been SB Ray Natress.  Ray has caught 5 passes for 232 yards and 1TD.

The Stallions defence has been stellar if not perfect so far this season.  CB Grant Shaw has 5 INT's and DE Guillaume Petit has 2 sacks.  PLus with the addition of former Eskimo JR Larose at Safety teams are in tough to pass the ball.

The Stallions all tim e record against the Vandals is 4 - 1 - 1, outscoring the Vandals thru the 6 games 189 - 84.

The 1-0 Stallions travel to play the Buccaneers this weekend.  The Stallions won there last game against the Gators 27 - 10, but victory came with a cost.  QB Willie King dislocated his hip and has been lost for the season.  Taking the helm will be rookie QB Travis Tyler, but Travis is hardly a rookie.  Travis was a starting member of the 2001 St Mary's Vanier cup winning team and now brings his experience to the Stallions.  In limited action last game Travis was 3/8 for 87 yrds and rushed for 27 yards.

The Stallions offence did sputter last weekend, but did have a few signs of life.  The Stallions rushing game totalled 144 yrds and 2 TD and they hope to continue the trend this weekend.  Leading the way last week was vetern RB Yemi Adeniyi, who rushed for 63 yrds on 8 carries and scored 1 TD.

Defensively the Stallions shut down the Gators and only allowed 10 pts.  7 of which came from a rare special teams turnover and allowed the Gators to start on the Stallions 3 yard line.  LB's Real Bouchard and Yuri Wishloff were all over the field making tackles, combining for 10.5 tkls.  CB Grant Shaw looks to take his league leading 2 INTs to a higher number and adding CB J.R. LaRose to this weekends roster will only help shutdown the Buccaneers passing threats.

The Stallions all time record vs the Buccaneers is 7 - 2, outscoring them 226 to 111.  Last season the Stallions defeated the Buccaneers 50 - 0.

This weekend the Stallions kickoff there 2009 campaign at home against the Calgary Gators.  There have been a few changes for the 09 Stallions.  One major change was at RB, where former Stallions RB C.Carr has departed and the vacancy has been filled by two veteren RB's.  Taking the reigns are Yemi Adeniyi and Kent Turner.  Yemi comes into the 2009 season as the second all time Stallions rushing leader with 1368 yards and 18 TD's.  His partner will be Kent Turner is the Stallions All time leading rusher with 1742 yrds and 15 TD's.

Defensively the Stallions have the 2008 AFL Defensive player of the year winner in DB Rio Wells.  Rio also has over 10 years of CFL experience between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Toronto Argo's.  2007 AFL Defensive MVP and 2007 AFL Rookie of the year winner, CB Grant Shaw is also returning to the Stallions defence.  Plus with the return of DE's Tim Siewert and Guillaume Petit (combined 42.5 sacks) and OLB Yuri Wishloff (20 career sacks / 307 career tackles) the Stallions defence looks Rock solid once again.

The last time these two teams met was last year in Calgary when the Gators narrowly defeated the Stallions 12 - 11.  The Stallions all time record against the Gators is 5 wins - 4 loses and 1 tie.  The Stallions are 5 - 2 in season openers.