Strathmore shows well at Alberta Summer Games

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Strathmore brought home baseball gold last weekend during the biennial Alberta Summer Games in Grande Prairie.
Jonathan Rilling was the only player from the community to be named to the zone 2 squad.
Loaded with players from the Okotoks Dawgs Academy, zone 2 was a heavy favourite to take the tourney, but they certainly didn’t start the tournament looking like favourites.
“We were down 9-0 early in our first game. We all looked around and thought that this wasn’t how we thought the tournament was going to go. We thought we had a better team than this,” said Rilling, a second basemen.
Zone 2 gave their head a shake and bounced out of the early funk and went on to wax zone 7 by a score of 24-13 in the opener July 20.
Rilling’s squad closed out the round robin with a 6-4 victory over zone 6 later that afternoon.
Rilling made his first start in the semis when they took on zone 4. While Rilling was held hitless, he did draw a walk and was hit by a pitch once. He also made all the routine plays at second, in the 7-0 blanking.
“It was great to experience AAA ball and be around some really great players. The group of guys was very welcoming, and we had a great time,” said Rilling, who is 14 years of age.
Playing for gold, zone 2 didn’t hold back, as they steamrolled zone 5 8-0 to capture the tourney title.
“It was such an exciting feeling. This was one of the first tournaments I’ve ever won. To do it at this level was a great feeling,” said Rilling.
Baseball wasn’t the only sport that saw a zone 2 team on the podium.
The football program featured three local players and won bronze in the most exciting fashion possible.
Zone 2 missed out on a chance for gold by a fingernail, as they played zone 5 tight all game and trailed 11-9 in pounding rain until the final few minutes.
A late touchdown made the final 19-9 for zone 5 and sent zone 2 to the bronze medal game.
Zone 4 held a 20-6 lead on zone 2 in the second half. Finally receiving some nice weather, zone 2 was able to march down the field twice and added a two-point convert to force overtime.
New to the games this year was the Canadian Football League overtime rules, where the clock is turned off and teams start at the opposition’s 35-yard line. They are given three downs to make 10 yards to keep going. If the team that starts scores, the opposition has to either match their score or one-up them for the win.
Zone 4 won the coin toss and punched in a touchdown. Their kicker got injured earlier in the game, which forced them to go for two. Zone 2’s defence, led by Kaden Warren, Dawson Jensen and Jack Warrack, shut down zone 4 and gave the offence a chance for the win.
Zone 2 Head Coach Chris Class marched his team down the field and answered with a touchdown. After zone 4 missed their convert, all zone 2 needed was to kick the ball through the uprights to seal the bronze.
But, after the snap, the kick got blocked.
Luckily, a flag was thrown as a zone 4 player jumped offside.
With a second chance at glory, zone 2 booted the ball clear through the uprights for the 27-26 victory July 22 and captured their first medal at the Games since 2010.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game end like that,” said Glass, who was coaching in the games for the third time. “That was one of the craziest finishes I’ve ever seen.”
Helping lead the comeback was Warrack, who owned the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball all weekend.
“That kid is incredible. He did everything we asked him to do, played every down on both sides of the ball and dominated. He was amazing,” said Glass.
The final local medal earned at the games came from Boston Marshman, a swimmer who competed in seven different events.
His best work came in the male 100-metre individual medley, where he took third in a time of 1:17.85.
Elle Sauve nearly won third in softball, but her team lost to zone 3 by a score of 3-2 in the bronze medal game July 22.
Kyle McKinnon and Brock Fargey teamed up in the lacrosse tournament and finished seventh.
Overall, zone 2 ended the games by placing third in total medal count with 48 golds, 47 silvers and 38 bronzes.