Spartans Advance To U12 League Championship Game
By Robert Thomas
“There’s nine minutes left can we celebrate we’re going to the finals?” a Moose Jaw Spartans asked a coach on the bench.
“No we have to win this game first,” the coach replied.
The score was 39 - 16.
But then the Moose Jaw Bulldogs offence kicked in and they gave Spartans a run for their money.
With a few minutes to play and the score 39 - 30 the Bulldogs would try to kick in a two point conversion.
Due to penalties taken by the Spartans the Bulldogs had three attempts to make the two point conversion but failed.
A successful field goal conversion would have left the Bulldogs within a converted touchdown of tying the Spartans.
A potential come from behind victory was within their reach - something just minutes a go seemed improbable.
The Bulldogs just fell short losing to the Spartans 39 - 30 in the U12 semi-final in the Kinsmen Moose Jaw Minor Football League on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a tight battle today. It was a good game,” Moose Jaw Spartans head coach Brock Montgomery.
Asked about his player’s confidence with nine minutes to play and if he worried about over confidence Montgomery said it’s something to be aware of.
“It’s a little bit of both. That’s a very good team and you can’t take your foot off the pedal with a team like that,” he said, adding “we were guilty of maybe a little bit of that and they snuck up on us.”
“The team had to fasten up and hold on for the win.”
Asked about what he thought was the big thing for the Spartans on the afternoon Montgomery said it was the team in general.
“We practiced pretty well this week and I thought we had a good week. We put a few kids in some different positions so in the beginning we kind of had a little bit of a slow start,” he said.
“You know getting the plays off and with those new positions getting rolling but after that I think it was the team sticking to what we know,” Montgomery added.
He said playing good defence was critical in the victory.
“The Bulldogs have a very good offence and as you saw they got right back in the game and as I said you can’t take your foot off the gas for a second against that team they are very good.”
“It was not a tight game i the first half and we certainly tightened up in the second half. We made some adjustments and our offence started to put points on the board,” Moose Jaw Bulldogs head coach Cory Harkness said.
Asked about the offence being the Bulldogs’ “saving grace” for the Bulldogs on the afternoon Harkness said it was.
“It (the offence) was. The defence had to adjust for the Spartans team. They are so good. They have such fast backs. Their quarterback she can run that ball. It’s like a three headed beast back there,” he said.
Final Week Expectations
Despite not advancing to the league championship next weekend Harkness said the team would still have one more game playing for third place.
Despite not being in the championship game Harkness would like to do well against the Swift Current Steelers and build participation for next year.
“Finishing on a high note. Making sure the kids have fun. Because if they have fun they’ll come back next year. This year we had more kids signed up for minor football than ever before and I’d love to see that trend continue.”
For Spartans head coach Montgomery there is no special plans and preparation for the U12 Kinsmen Moose Jaw Minor Football League’s championship game next Saturday evening.
“I’m just looking forward to watching the kids compete. As I told them all week I think they deserve to be in the championship game but they had to earn it today. And they did,” Montgomery said.
“Hopefully they can put together a good game next week and be the best version of the Spartans we can be.”
Asked about being able to play the final game of the season at home in Moose Jaw Montgomery said it was goo.
“It’s good it’s nice to play here. I don’t have any kids on this team but for the parents not having to travel is obviously a bonus.”
The only thing Montgomery said he could add was he was “proud of how the team played.”
“They battled back with a little bit of adversity throughout the game. As I said you can’t take your foot off the gas for a second with the Bulldogs they’ve got a lot of firepower. It made it interesting that’s for sure.”
The U12 championship game will be held under the lights next Saturday.
The reason why it’s being held on Saturday evening and not Friday evening it’s because the U14 Vikings head coach Colin Belsher is also the head coach of the Central Cyclones.
The cyclones will be playing next Saturday afternoon in Weyburn for the 12-aside championship in the South Rural Conference.
The U14 championship game will be on Friday evening under the lights. The time for the game is unknown a publication time.
