SCFA Badgers headed back to CPWFL title game
By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter
Tyler Lowey Photo
The Badgers needed an overtime rushing touchdown to eclipse the Red Deer Hornets last year. This year, overtime wasn’t needed: Brady Johansen led the Badgers with three touchdowns, as his team downed the Hornets 21-12 Oct. 28 at an unseasonably warm Crowther Memorial Junior High School field.
Johansen has been the most impactful Badger on both sides of the ball this season.
Against the Hornets, he lined up under centre in the red zone and torched them with his legs once he slid out into the flats.
After the Badgers defensive unit forced the Hornets to punt from their own end zone towards the end of first quarter, a five-yard net punt set up Johansen’s first touchdown, as he bolted to the right for the untouched score.
“He had some great runs for us today,” said Badgers Head Coach Doug Thiessen.
Johansen was just getting started.
After carrying the ball down to the five-yard line, his offensive line was kind enough to back them up 10 yards with a false start, providing more yardages for him.
Rolling out right, he looked to throw, but saw nobody open, so he tucked the football, put his head down and barreled into the end zone.
Following a similar theme in the fourth quarter, Johansen rolled out to the right and burned past a secondary unit that stood a head shorter than him. They simply couldn’t keep up.
Johansen wasn’t the only story line that afternoon. Thiessen’s teams have always been among the league’s best in run prevention.
The defence set up the first score and was responsible for Johansen’s third score, when Jordan Southern punched the ball free from Hornets leading back Ryan Raymont and was covered up by Adam Greenhill with eight minutes remaining in regulation.
The Hornets didn’t go into the night easily as they drove down the field, as Raymont notched his second touchdown of the game with 1:22 remaining, cutting the lead to 21-12. Needing to recover the onside kick, the ball glanced off a Badger player and was recovered by Kade McGowan.
The Hornets were threatening with time as their biggest enemy, when Southern powered through the offensive line, plastering Raymont into the turf in the backfield, all but ending the game.
The league semis were anything but a blowout, as the Badgers only held a 7-6 lead at half time.
It wasn’t all glorious for Johansen, who fumbled the ball on his own nine-yard line. Lucky for him, his defence plugged up the middle of the field, neutralizing Raymont, who had been gutting the Badgers at times between the hash marks.
“We are a defence-first team. We are a lot looser with our plays on offence than we are with our defence,” said Thiessen. “We knew it was going to be a tough game. We figured they wanted revenge from last year and our guys stepped up.”
Last year’s playoff hero, Austin McInnis, fumbled a punt deep in his own territory, which was recovered by Connor Hawking. Having stopped two run attempts, the Badgers got pressure on the Hornets quarterback, forcing an incomplete pass.
Up next for the Badgers is a return trip to the league final, where they will take on the Stettler Panthers at CMJHS field (3 p.m.) The two teams did not face off against one another this season.
Should they win, they would return to the provincials for the second-straight year. Last year, the final took place in Strathmore. This year, Lloydminster will host the top peewee footballers from Alberta.
The bantam Badgers waited for the C playoffs to start before they picked up their first win of the season.
“It was awesome; a very, very awesome feeling for these kids,” said Badgers Head Coach Mike Hopp.
Winless in the first six games under the Hopp regime, the Badgers scraped by the Ponoka Broncs 9-8 Oct. 28 in Ponoka.
In an odd way to reach nine points, the Badgers punted three balls through the Broncs end zone for rouges.
Then in the third, Riley Heysa took a handoff 25 yards to the house, putting the Badgers up 9-0 after a missed point-after attempt.
“We only had about 20 players for this game and a lot of our guys were playing on both sides of the ball, so they got pretty gassed by the end,” said Hopp. “I’m proud of the way they hung in there and battled to the end.”
Lucky for the Badgers, the missed conversion didn’t come back to bite them after the Broncs marched down the field in the fourth for a score.
With only 1:16 remaining in regulation, the Broncs attempted an on-side kick. The kick failed to go the required 10 yards, so possession turned over to the Badgers, who ran out the clock.
The big win means the Badgers squeeze one more game out of their season, as they will meet the Rocky Mountain House Rebels Nov. 4 in Rocky Mountain House.