Spartans drop playoff rematch

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

If they could have had it their way, the Strathmore High School Spartans probably would have liked to save their rare win against the Medicine Hat Mohawks for the playoffs instead of the regular season.
Playing their third game in a week span, the Spartans were unable to duplicate their magical comeback performance against the Mohawks in the regular season finale when they locked horns with the Mohawks in a playoff rematch Oct. 20 at the Methanex Bowl. The Spartans were eliminated from the postseason with the 28-8 loss.
The Spartans finished the regular season as the No. 4 seed and had to knock off the Monsignor McCoy High School Colts Oct. 17 in the quarterfinals.
Playing from what felt like the inside of a wind tunnel, the Spartans blanked the Colts 39-0 at home to advance to the Rangeland Football Conference semifinals for the second straight year.
Kevin Agboro notched a pair of rushing touchdowns, Noah Desjardins ran one in from 12 yards out and Vito Moon registered a rushing touchdown.
The stage was set for a rematch. The Spartans were one week removed from handing the Mohawks their first regular season loss in four years. Having to live with the blemished record, the Mohawks came out demanding revenge.
“They were a lot more focused than we were,” said Spartans Head Coach Darrell Hargrove. “We were still riding the high of beating them last week and the playoff win earlier in the week and took too long to get into the game.”
From tornado winds to hurricane rains, the weather didn’t cooperate with the Spartans the past week.
The rain started falling quite heavily 10 minutes before warm-up and didn’t let up for the entire game.
“Both teams had trouble snapping the ball; it was hard to get anything going,” said Hargrove.
The lone bright spot for the Spartans came in the fourth quarter, when Zach Hiscocks took a handoff 45 yards to pay dirt.
That closes the book on another chapter of Spartan football. The team will gather one final time in Brooks, Nov. 5, for the RFL banquet, when the yearly awards get handed out.