Playing in a record 12th straight provincial final, the Holy Rosary Raiders made it count Saturday, Nov. 29, as they won their fourth consecutive School Sport Alberta 3A football championship.
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In chilly temperatures pushing -15 C, Lloydminster’s golden boys warmed the hearts of the Holy Rosary faithful and defeated a familiar foe, the Cardston Cougars, 26-14 at Edmonton’s Jasper Place Bowl.
“It was awesome to end the year with a win,” said Denem Weber, one of the Raiders’ 19 senior players.
“This being my senior year adds a big factor to this championship. It was kind of emotional at the end. I shed a tear or two.”
Weber, 17, and some of his contemporaries have won three provincial titles with Holy Rosary’s senior team throughout their high school years.
“It was a big moment,” he said. “I know a lot of people don’t get to walk off the field as champions in your senior season.
“It’s a good feeling, especially with all your best buddies. You make a lot of buddies in this game. It’s one of the best things about it.”
It’s also a game of momentum shifts. Weber authored one of those with a reverse fake and a prolific touchdown on an 85-yard kickoff return to open the second half and put the Raiders in front 19-14, instilling belief in his teammates and doubt in the Cougars.
“Yeah, it was a long run,” understated the athletic Weber. “I had a couple of guys to beat and one guy to make miss. Then, I did a little stutter-step, and I was gone.
“I’d say that kickoff return was a pretty big momentum swing. It was a big moment for me and our team. Afterward, I just got super-excited. It was nice to contribute like that and to have that momentum swing, because it’s a game of momentum, really.”
It was an even greater turning point in the game, because Cardston had misinterpreted which team was kicking to begin the second half, said Holy Rosary coach Vince Orieux.
“We lost the coin toss, but their kids made an error and didn’t defer,” Orieux said of the Cougars. “They took choice, and we ended up getting the ball at the start of the game and at the start of the second half.
“They didn’t really realize what they had done, because they came out in the second half expecting to receive the kickoff, after scoring a touchdown to end the second quarter with no time left on the clock. So, they had all this momentum going into the third quarter. Then, they realized they had to kick to us, and we returned it for a touchdown. That flipped the game.”
As all of that unfolded, a confused Cardston contingent watched its 14-13 halftime lead evaporate.
“Their coaches were upset, their players weren’t sure what was going on, and their fans were screaming,” Orieux said. “So, all of a sudden, they’ve got to kick off, and we ran a fake reverse and take it 85 yards to the end zone.
“They couldn’t really recover from that. Our defence took over.”
For the second week in a row, the Raiders didn’t give up a point in the second half, including their 44-15 provincial semifinal victory over the St. Paul Lions on Nov. 22 in the historic first game on Holy Rosary’s new artificial turf.
Two days before December, this past Saturday’s game marked the latest date Holy Rosary has played a gold-medal game during its string of championship years.
The 3A battle between the top-ranked and unbeaten Raiders and the No. 3 Cougars lived up to the hype as part of the five-game provincial package of Alberta Bowl finals played in a showcase stadium last weekend in Edmonton.
Kicking off at 11 a.m. in sunny but cold conditions, it was a hard-fought, physical game between two historically winning programs.
“It was a really good football game,” Orieux said. “If you were a spectator, you got your money’s worth.
“From a coach’s standpoint, it was back and forth and lots of emotions. The kids played well. There were a few mistakes, as far as linemen were concerned, which cost us a couple of times.
“But take nothing away from that (Cardston) team. They were loaded with athletes. Our preparation on both sides of the ball kind of paid off. We were able to neutralize some of their kids just by being in the right spot and pursuing the ball.”
Brady Fallscheer, the Raiders’ spunky Grade 10 quarterback, continued to generate offence. He scored two rushing touchdowns during the defensive battle, including an insurance TD late in the fourth quarter.
Cashing in on its extensive first drive, Holy Rosary opened the scoring on a Kostas Mavridis touchdown seven minutes into the game. That sequence was an early confidence-boost for the Raiders, who had bunked in Edmonton on Friday night and showed up at the field for warm-ups at about 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
“We killed seven minutes off the clock on a long, sustained drive and scored a touchdown,” Orieux said. “That was great for us, knowing we could move the ball, and I think it deflated them a little bit.
“But being the athletes that (the Cougars) are, three or four plays on offence and they were in our end zone. We had missed a convert, so they were up 7-6.”
Holy Rosary regained the lead early in the second quarter, going up 13-7 on Fallscheer’s first TD on Saturday. Cardston came back and scored on the final play of the quarter to take a one-point advantage into the halftime break.
That set the stage for Weber’s heroics to kick off the second half.
“They were pretty good at passing the ball and they’re a decently aggressive team, almost too aggressive, a little unnecessary,” Weber said about the Cougars. “They got a couple of penalties. It was a rough game, that’s for sure.
“But they’re good in the air. I’d say we held them pretty well. They only scored twice, and then in the second half, they didn’t score at all.”
SENIORS MAKE THEIR MARK WITH RAIDERS
The Raiders also weathered the elements as they dressed accordingly for the wintry football conditions.
“It was pretty cold,” Weber said. “At the start of the game, I couldn’t really bend my fingers that much. But as the game went on, didn’t notice anything different.
“Underneath my football gloves, I put on latex gloves. It keeps the moisture, and it keeps your hands a bit warmer. It doesn’t help a whole bunch in the super cold, but it definitely does something.”
Fortunately for veteran players like Webber, they weren’t standing around on the sidelines for long, and hardly at all.
He said the Holy Rosary coaches prepared their players well for handling adverse weather in an extra-long high school season, which was extended because of an Alberta teachers’ strike that suspended play for a month.
“Our coach definitely tells us to bundle up, but you also have to be able to play the game, if you’re playing,” said Weber, one of the Raiders’ captains.
“I had two shirts on and two compression pants, two pairs of socks, and also a hand-warmer, but you’ve still got to be able to move.”
The Raiders moved into the history books in equalling a four-straight provincial championship run, a feat that Cardston fashioned back in the 1990s. The Cougars have also had modern success in Alberta Bowl competition. They’re familiar opponents for Holy Rosary, which defeated Cardston 28-6 in the 2023 provincial 3A final.
The Cochrane Cobras, with their run of seven straight provincial titles, are the only other 3A team to post as many consecutive championships as this year’s finalists, Cardston and Holy Rosary.
The Raiders benefitted from the leadership of Weber and fellow captains Isaac Jurke, Jake Wicker and JR Howdle, who was the starting quarterback before suffering a knee injury that necessitated surgery early in the season.
Orieux said all of his Grade 12 players were influential in their final year of high school football and contributed to the team’s winning culture.
For some of them, post-secondary play is in their future. Wicker has already committed to the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, while Weber is close to choosing one of three U Sports schools — Alberta, Calgary or Saskatchewan.
Canadian Junior Football League scouts were prominent in the stands during the high school championship weekend. As he fully recovers from surgery, Holy Rosary’s Howdle plans to join one of those junior teams, the national-champion Saskatoon Hilltops.
Multiple senior Raiders filled a yearbook worth of memories during their three high school years with the celebrated football program.
“Isaac Jurke was a key contributor right from his first game in Grade 10,” Orieux said. “Second to none, as far as his determination and toughness. Just doing whatever it takes to get the job done.”
The long-serving coach also mentioned Weber’s work as a receiver, along with a trio of offensive linemen in Wicker, Denver Chant and Rylan Iversen.
“Those three were solid for us,” Orieux said. “You can’t win a game if you’re not controlling the line of scrimmage. Those three guys, as seniors, did a fantastic job.
“Ezra Nedelko, a receiver, is a guy who doesn’t get a lot of stats, but he scored a huge touchdown for us (in the provincial semifinal). In that St. Paul game, he scored one late, where he made about five moves. He broke about four tackles and got in the end zone. It really broke the game wide-open. That really put it out of reach and in our favour. With a play like that, it just broke (the Lions’) spirits.”
The Raiders’ contributions, of course, go beyond those six graduating players that he named, Orieux added. “Not to take anything away from the other guys, but those kids were our leaders.”
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