By Cam Tait,
Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON – Edmonton Wildcats running back Tristan Jones has football in his blood. His father, Milson, played the same position with the Edmonton Eskimos from 1983-87.
“I idolized my dad and it was neat to be around the dressing room,” said Jones. “I thought maybe if I worked hard, I could play football like him.”
Wildcats head coach Gary Durchik was the offensive line coach for the Eskimos when Milson played here.
“I think Tristan is a little better than his dad — he’s faster,” said Durchik. “He also he has his dad’s vision and cutting ability.”
It would be difficult to play much better than Jones did Sunday when he led the Wildcats to a 35-32 upset of the Saskatoon Hilltops at Clarke Park.
Jones rushed for 234 yards on 24 carries and scored three touchdowns, including a three-yard run on the Wildcats’ first possession of the game, a 34-yard pass-and-run play later in the first quarter and a one-yard dive into the end zone in the third quarter as the Wildcats built a 35-10 lead.
The powerful Hilltops stormed back to make a game of it, however. Saskatoon even recovered a short kickoff with just over a minute to play, but its magic wore out when quarterback Mark Feader missed his favourite target, Andrew Busby, on a third-down gamble with 22 seconds left in the game.
After his rookie season with the Wildcats, Jones played three years for Dickenson State University in North Dakota but returned to Edmonton before the current season.
“Things weren’t working out that well in school so I came back home,” he said.
The Wildcats are now 2-0, the same record as the crosstown rival Edmonton Huskies, who downed the Calgary Colts 30-20 on Saturday. The Huskies didn’t allow any points in the fourth quarter for the second week in a row.
