Peewee Badgers off to finals; bantams edged

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Badgers peewee football team is off to the finals for a second year in a row, thanks to a fundamentally sound day on both sides of the ball in a 56-32 win over Olds on Oct. 31.
The coaching staff emphasized to the players that they shouldn’t be overconfident going into the game and to go out and have fun. Furthermore, they gave the team credit.
“We rebounded nicely,” said assistant coach Travis Ericksteen. “We had a slow start and we fumbled the ball on the first play. We gave up a touchdown on the first defensive play. But we told the boys it’s the beginning of the game, lots of time left, and they settled in … they seemed to have calmed down and played their game and away we went.”
Ericksteen added they had made adjustments at various points in the game but thinks the players adapted well to the playbook.
“We tried some new stuff today,” said Ericksteen. “Olds likes to run the ball up the middle a lot and these guys did. We started to run a 3-4 defense, that’s the first time we’ve ever done that and we’re really happy with how that worked out.”
The Badgers will host the Innisfail Cyclones at noon in the B finals on Nov. 7 at Strathmore’s Crowther Memorial Junior High School.
Meanwhile, the bantam Badgers could not complete the comeback on the Red Deer Lindsay Thurber Raiders, as they were ousted 16-14 and ended what was otherwise a successful season for the bantam program.
“They were a good team, really well-balanced,” said head coach Sean Seafoot. “They were passing a lot more than we expected. We had a few turnovers, a few bad snaps. Just a few tiny things that you can pick and point through the game.”
Seafoot reflected on the undefeated regular season by saying they scored a lot of points to have big point differentials and the defence earned a couple of shutouts. He added that he was proud of the team and thinks the chemistry is only going to get stronger next year.