ESTEVAN - The Estevan Coldwell Banker Choice Real Estate U12 Chargers football team has earned a first for Penta Completions Estevan Minor Football.
The Chargers defeated the Moose Jaw Spartans 60-51 on Sunday afternoon at the Dana Quewezance Memorial Field at Woodlawn Athletic Park to wrap up the regular season title in the Moose Jaw Minor Football League.
It was also the fifth straight win for the Chargers (5-1), who will face the Weyburn Ravens on Oct. 16 in the semifinal round. The winner will advance to the league final, which will be played in Moose Jaw.
Chargers head coach Matt Schell said all nine touchdowns were scored on the ground. Kaleb Crossman had five and TJ Thompson notched four.
“We were fairly successful passing the ball,” said Schell. “We had a couple of nice receptions by Taylor Lisafeld and Xander Pelletier, they just weren’t able to get into the end zone. They got close a couple of times on some passes.”
Estevan had a 35-12 lead at half-time, and a 28-point advantage late in the third quarter, but Moose Jaw used an aerial attack to make the game interesting, after Estevan had played so well defensively.
“We couldn’t catch up to their scheme quick enough. I’ll put that on myself, and on the other coaches. We didn’t do a good enough job of matching their scheme that they switched up. They went to an air attack, and they have a phenomenal quarterback.”
Estevan led 53-51 with a minute to play. Facing a third and 10 play, Moose Jaw called a timeout, and Schell told the players the coaches were proud of them, and implored his team to come up with the first down.
“Caleb proceeded to run the ball 60 yards for a touchdown,” said Schell. “It was a wild game. It was such an emotional roller coaster for these kids, and you could see the highs and the lows, and that’s what I really love about this game, is it’s not over until it’s over.”
Schell said the Spartans are a fun team to play against. They’re physical and they showed their resiliency to come back from a 28-point deficit to make it a two-point game.
“We would go out and try to chew clock as much as we could, and they would go out in one play and score again,” said Schell.
Hugh Ross had an outstanding game on defence and was always around the ball. Schell called him the best defensive player in the league, as he has found a love for the sport. Brooks Kuntz had some nice tackles and sacks. Dexter Ciepliski made some great plays as well. Max Friess, Tucker Karcha and Brody Hogg are first year players getting a lot of minutes and getting a taste of what the sport is all about.
Arvin Sangha and Taya Stigings were a force on the offensive line.
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The Estevan Kinette Club U18 Viragos female football team dropped a 52-0 decision to the Regina Victorias on Friday night.
Coach Mark Tribiger said the Viragos had some fun, but couldn’t get anything going against the Victorias’ defence.
“Our offence did put together some drives, and we had the ball moving, and as soon as we’d get some momentum going, they squashed it on us. They figured out exactly what we were doing, and shut it down.”
On the next drive, the Viragos would adapt, but the Victorias would answer the Viragos.
Defensively, the Viragos forced some two-and-out series, but a couple of lapses were costly.
The Viragos will wrap up the season by visiting Melville on Saturday.
