Canada 38, USA 35, at the 2005 NFL Global Junior Championship

I'm going back to recording results from past games with this recap of the gold medal game against who-else-but-the-Americans at the NFL GLobal Junior Championship in 2005.

I located this one on the Football Québec website.  In French.  And it appeared to be a play-by-play summary which was later shortened into a game recap.

To make my life easier, I Google-translated it and removed some of the goofiness that comes from online translations.  If it comes off as a bit choppy, that would be why.

Canada started the game strong. After several good runs by Jerome Messam, # 28 Samuel Fournier caught a 16-yard pass from Danny Brannagan for a touchdown. Canada took the lead 7-0 after Christopher Milo's convert.

The Americans' first offensive possession was stopped by a quarterback sack by Maxime Tardif.  A 35-yard field goal attempt failed and Canada got the ball back.

The powerful Canadian offensive line continued to open huge whole for Jerome Messam which led to a touchdown run of 10 yards.  With the convert successful, Canada took a 14-00 lead.

After a good kickoff return, the United States began their offensive possession at their 47-yard line. A few plays later, they reduced Canada's lead with a 35-yard run by Brandon Higginbotham for a touchdown. On their next possession, the United States tied the score on a touchdown pass of 24 yards from Riley Skinner to Colin Peek...On the last play of the half, Canada managed to take the lead on a 33-yard Christopher Milo field goal. At halftime, Canada led 17-14.

The United States were forced to punt after their first possession of the second half.  Canada took the ball at the U.S. 49-yard line. After a few runs by Jerome Messam, including a 31-yard'er, Danny Brannagan scored on a quarterback sneak. After the convert, Canada led 24-14.

The United States took the ball but Jean-Michel Laplante intercepted a pass by Riley Skinner.  Jerome Messam carried the ball for 29 yards and, on the next play, scored a touchdown of 20 yards. The convert was successful. The score was 31-14 for Canada.

The tide turned in favour of the United States who rolled to three consecutive touchdowns. The first, on a trick play, is a 30-yard reception by Colin Peek.  Later, Skinner hit on a 48-yard touchdown pass. Trailing 31-28, American defensive back Travis Prince scored on an interception return of 36 yards to give his team their first lead of the game, 35-31.

Trailing by four points with less than 4 minutes to go, Canada marched down the field with a few runs by Jerome Messam. Then, with less than 3 minutes left in the game, Samuel Fournier caught a 20-yard pass from Brannagan for the decisive touchdown. The Canadian defense held the U.S. offense to allow Canada to preserve their lead and win 38-35.

As you might have pieced together from the recap, Jerome Messam was named MVP.

Tihs game marked a turnaround for the Canadian team.  They had lost three straight gold medal games to the United States prior to winning this one, and they would go on to win the next two years as well.