A couple of Raiders’ teammates from Holy Rosary High School are national U18 football champions.
Jake Wicker and Denem Weber, both 2008-born players from Lloydminster, were part of the Alberta team that won the Football Canada Cup on Sunday (July 20) at Antigonish, N.S.
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It was a dramatic finish for the Albertans, as Wicker and Weber made the most of their second year with the national team program.
En route to a 37-34 overtime victory over 2024 champion Ontario, Alberta came all the way back from a 21-0 deficit early in the gold-medal game.
Alberta rallied in the second half but still trailed 31-21 with about two minutes left in regulation.
Matias Pisa of Airdrie’s George McDougall High School scored a 34-yard field goal with 2:09 left on the clock. Just four seconds remained when Joel Thorpe of Edmonton’s Harry Ainlay High School added “a thrilling five-yard TD run,” reported Tim Enger from Football Alberta.
“In overtime, Ontario had the ball first and managed an impressive 47-yard field goal to take the lead. When Alberta got the ball for their turn, it was all Thorpe as he carried the ball four straight times to paydirt, securing a 37-34 win.”
The late-game heroics enabled Alberta to end its 18-year gold-medal drought. Alberta’s previous championships in the Football Canada Cup were in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2007.
This year, each province sent its best U18 players to the national championship at St. Francis Xavier University, home of the St. F.X. X-Men of Atlantic University Sport.
In semifinal play last Thursday, Alberta also took the comeback route in a 34-27 victory over Quebec.
Trailing 27-11 going into the fourth quarter, Alberta tied the score with 1:20 left and won the game with 14 seconds remaining on a 65-yard punt-return TD from Aaron Oboh of Notre Dame High School in Calgary.
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