Peewee Badgers seize No. 1 seed

Tyler Lowey
Times Reporter

 

In what could have been a Central Peewee Football League finals preview, the Strathmore Community Football Association Badgers blanked the Sylvan Lake Bears 12-0 Saturday morning (Oct. 8) on the frozen plains of Crowther Memorial Junior High School (CMJHS) field.
“That was an awesome game. Our guys played their hearts out,” said Badgers’ head coach Doug Thiessen.
The Bears (4-1) entered the snowy field tied with the Badgers (5-0) for the top spot, but were in first place for points scored (150), while allowing the least amount of points (14). The Badgers have the second-most points for (135) and now the least amount of points against (18)
“This was a measuring-stick game for both teams,” said Bears head coach Garnet Rambaut. “They’re a good football team and we will probably see them again at some point.”
With the win, the Badgers now control where the finals and provincials could potentially be played.
“Right now, we have home field over them in the playoffs and provincials. We’ve got one more game in Olds, but after that, we get to play all of our games in Strathmore, and that’s exactly what I wanted this year,” said Thiessen.
It wasn’t the cleanest game; the first blast of winter still blanketed the field while kickoff temp fluttered around freezing.
“We just tried to keep the game plan as simple as possible on days like these,” said Thiessen. “All year, we have run our offence out of the shotgun formation. Today, because we had trouble passing and cutting in the snow, we moved the QB under centre and drove the ball right down the middle of the field.”
The Badgers have a bye this week and then head to Olds to take on the 1-3 Huskies (Oct. 22) in their final regular season game. The Tier III playoffs begin Oct. 29. Should the Badgers keep on winning, they would host provincials in November.

 

Bantams shut out in exhibition play
The field began to soften up when the bantam Badgers took the field in an exhibition matchup with the Drumheller Titans.
The Titans drubbed the Badgers 40-0 at CMJHS field.
The game became an exhibition match after the Innisfail squad dropped out at the beginning of the season. The Badgers (2-1) already experienced their bye week, but they were scheduled to play Innisfail over the weekend, so they made plans for Drumheller to come to town during the Titans (2-1) bye week.
The field became so foggy at the end of the game, it became hard to see the scoreboard from the sidelines.
The Badgers biggest offensive play came when Cooper Nelson caught a 26-yard pass bringing them into the Titans red zone. Unfortunately, they were unable to punch it in.
“We just tried to stick to our run game today and running north and south,” said Titans’ coach Paul Redmond. “The conditions were too sloppy to do anything else.”
“It was the first cold game of the year, so it’s a little bit of a tough adjustment for all of us.”
With a bye this weekend (Oct. 15), the Badgers conclude their Central Football League regular season in a rematch with the Titans at McMahon Stadium Oct. 22 (6:30 p.m.).

 

Senior Badgers tame Tigers
The senior Badgers stitched a clown suit on the Carstairs/Crossfield Tigers. They scored on every possession, pounding them 124-0 at CMJHS.
“The conditions became nicer for us. The field wasn’t as sloppy as the peewee game. We didn’t have any fumbles or any bad snaps,” said Badgers head coach Sean Seafoot. “We also didn’t make our usual mistakes that hold us back and shoot us in the foot. We didn’t have any offsides or illegal formations.”
The unofficial record for biggest blowout in the Mountain View Football Conference is 220-0, but in all of Seafoot’s years of playing and coaching for the Badgers or his six years with the St. Mary’s University Huskies, he’s never seen a lopsided win quite like this.
“To be fair, it was against one of the lower ranked teams in the league and we did everything well today,” said Seafoot.
Up next for the Badgers is a rematch with the 0-3 Tigers Oct. 15, in Carstairs for their final regular season game.
MVFC semifinals run Oct. 29 with the top four teams qualifying. League finals are slated for Nov. 5.
The senior Badgers (4-0-1) sit in first place.