Spartans off to league final

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Spartans football dominated their league semi final game in every aspect with a 62-14 win over the Red Deer Hornets on Oct. 25 in Strathmore.
“It was good, we brought our A game today. Right off the bat we wanted to start strongly and I told (the team) that if you get up on them a few, they’re going to quit and they did,” said peewee Spartans head coach Clinton Bean.
Red Deer turned the ball over a number of times and the Spartans were able to capitalize all game long.
“Yes they had a few turnovers that we capitalized on. It was nice in the second half in a playoff game, (to) have a lot of rookies to come in and play, we switched up our quarterbacks and running backs (and) some guys will be fresh for next week,” said Bean.
After having such a big lead, the focus tended to shift away at times in the game, but the coaching staff were able to get the players to sustain the pressure.
“The focus kind of flew away in the second half, it’s tough, they know they’re up by a lot and the other team can’t come back. We put some kids in different positions and situations that might come up later on in the season so we’ve got to be ready,” said Bean.
“We set a goal and our goal was to win the league. So we’re one game away.”
The Spartans will be hosting that league final this Saturday, Nov. 1 versus the Sylvan Lake Bears but time for kickoff is still to be determined.
The bantam Spartans season came to an end in their playoff game, as they were defeated 36-13 by Stettler on Oct. 25.
“We had a couple of turnovers at inopportune times. It wasn’t Mission Impossible by any means but we had to execute and we fell short on some of that a few times,” said head coach Carl Seafoot.
“In the last quarter, we strung some plays together which helped. Everybody has done well, better then it was at the start.”
The bantams were a young, inexperienced this year but it will help for next year that the players will have a season under their belts.
“There is a bunch of new guys here, going into next year they’ll have one year underneath their belt at this level. So it won’t be shock and awe for next year,” said Seafoot.
The roster numbers were a struggle all year and in the playoffs it became more difficult, being undermanned, to keep the game close.
“Today we dressed 18 so it makes things pretty tough. Guys are going both ways and that wears things down and to do that the whole year, it gets pretty tough,” said Seafoot.