Raiders heading to Alberta Bowl

Holy Rosary Raiders Caleb Gabrielson and Tyler Gerwing strip the ball from the Sturgeon Spirits for another successful turnover on Saturday in the Raider Bowl. Taylor Weaver Meridian Source

 

It was an exciting afternoon in the Raider Bowl as the Sturgeon Spirits were in town to play the Holy Rosary Raiders in the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) Tier III football north finals. 

On paper, both teams had confidence going into Saturday’s game with perfect regular-season records, but at the final horn, the Raiders walked away victorious with a 42-7 win. 

“I liked the effort today,” said Raiders head coach Vince Orieux. 

“We made some mistakes and we’d like to get our run game a little better, but we’ve got some young guys on the offensive line that are still learning and there’s lots of pressure coming at them. When the run game isn’t working you gotta rely on the quarterback and the receivers, and they did a heck of a job.”

Orieux added Saturday’s pass protection for veteran QB Matthew Cavanagh was strong, giving him lots of time to throw the ball.

“I’d rather be balanced (with the run game), but if we can score five or six in the air, we’ll take that.”

Cavanagh echoed Orieux’s remarks on the day’s effort and added the Raiders came pretty hot, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

“The defence struggled a bit, especially in comparison to last week because we shut out the Stettler Wildcats 17-0, but they pulled together, forced a whole lot of turnovers and played a great game overall.”

The ASAA south finals were also played on Saturday between the Strathmore Spartans and the Sylvan Lake Lakers. The Spartans beat the Lakers 48-31, sending them to the Alberta Bowl.

“Strathmore is a team we’ve never seen before,” said Orieux. 

“We’re going to have to get our noses into some film and learn as much as we can about them in a short amount of time.

“They’ve been around for a bit and had a solid team last year, and I think they’ll be good again this year.”

For the past number of years, the Raiders have advanced to the Alberta Bowl and lost to the Cochrane Cobras. That won’t be the case this year as Cochrane moved up to Tier I.

“We’ve never seen Strathmore play before but we’ll get our hands on some film and we’ll get a game plan going,” said Cavanagh.

“Going to the Alberta Bowl feels great. We had this feeling last season; same win, same team, it felt great, but in the end, we lost the Cochrane a week later. 

“We gotta come out on top next week so that’s the feeling we’ll remember. We won’t be remembering the pain because we’ll be feeling great.”

The Alberta Bowl is set for Friday night at Hellard Field at Shouldice Park in Calgary. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

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Taylor Weaver
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