A new field, with the same old results, formed a perfect combination for the Holy Rosary Raiders as they christened their stylish new home in victorious fashion on a sunny and crisp Saturday afternoon in Lloydminster.
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Playing their first game on the new turf alongside Holy Rosary High School, the top-ranked Raiders defeated the second-seeded St. Paul Lions 44-15 to win the North championship and advance to the School Sport Alberta 3A football final this Saturday in Edmonton.
Gunning for a fourth straight Alberta Bowl provincial crown, Holy Rosary goes up against the No. 3 Cardston Cougars, who won the South championship last weekend with a 41-0 victory over the Willow Creek Cobras.
The gold-medal game is set for 11 a.m. Saturday (Nov. 29) at Jasper Place Bowl in the provincial capital.
About 500 fans, including the school band, crowded beside Holy Rosary’s new field for the Raiders’ lone game in Lloydminster this season.
Construction delays and recent winter weather had threatened the chances of playing even one game on the Canadian Natural Field this fall. Not to mention the Alberta teachers’ work stoppage, which earlier suspended the high school schedule for about a month and had thrown all playoff hopes in limbo.
All those obstacles, however, were worth the wait for the Raiders, especially the senior players, who soaked up the historical moment Saturday. Holy Rosary now is one win away from another provincial championship and an unbeaten season.
“It feels amazing,” said Jake Wicker, one of those Raiders in Grade 12. “I’m glad we had the opportunity for the seniors to get (at least one game) on this field. We’ve been waiting a while. It’s been delayed, but we finally got to play on it. Now, we’re practising on it, too. It was amazing having all the support from all the fans who came out today. Everyone wants to see the new field.”
The Raiders just began practising on that surface last Thursday, two days before the provincial semifinal, Wicker said as players, fans and family celebrated on the artificial turf.
“We’ve been practising on the (nearby) baseball diamond at St. Thomas (School) this entire season, just because this field has been under construction. The baseball field, it’s all dirt now, there’s no grass left on it. We destroyed it.”
The Raiders didn’t necessarily destroy St. Paul, but they took control of a tight game late in the second quarter and never looked back in owning the second half of the game. They led 30-15 at halftime and outscored the Lions 14-0 the rest of the way.
While armed with multi-positional veterans like Wicker and Denem Weber, Holy Rosary also has solid depth throughout the lineup.
Grade 10 quarterback Brady Fallscheer hasn’t missed a beat since stepping into the starting role in playoff action three weeks ago, after senior pivot JR Howdle suffered a knee injury. Fortunately for Howdle, he was able to enter Saturday’s game in the final five minutes and gain a taste of the new-field fanfare in his graduation year.
Fallscheer, who just turned 15 in September, showed poise all game, shuffling his way around packs of Lions, while executing money passes to receivers like Weber and smooth-handed Grade 11 student Moyo Akinloye, who scored three touchdowns on the afternoon.
“It’s been pretty good,” Fallscheer said about his emergence the past three weeks. “We’ve been winning all our games, and I think I’ve been playing pretty well. Our team has just been really locked in and is doing really good.
“I’ve got to credit our receivers. They were getting open and just working onstuff that we’ve practised all week. It was our game plan to throw lots, and it worked out.”
ATHLETIC FAMILY OF RAIDERS
Ezra Nedelko, with two, and Kaden Jameson also scored touchdowns for the Raiders during an exceptional afternoon for Fallscheer and the offence.
“Brady had a heck of a game,” Holy Rosary head coach Vince Orieux said about Fallscheer, a cousin of former Raiders quarterback Matthew Fallscheer.
“On defence, we had key performances by linebacker Isaac Jurke and defensive end Kyle Stark.
“Jake Wicker had a big day on the offensive and defensive lines.”
Fallscheer relieved Howdle during a game against Olds in Red Deer before the work stoppage, and the rookie has been the main man since the resumption of the high school season. His quarterback experience covers seven years, going all the way back to his peewee days.
The five-foot-11, 157-pound Fallscheer also has roots as a receiver, as evidenced after Saturday’s game when he went for an extra run on the new turf and snagged a pass from a teammate.
“It’s pretty fun,” he said, tucking a football into his gear bag after playing a leading role in the historic first game on the school’s state-of-the-art field.
“It’s pretty nice. They spent a lot of time working — and a lot of money — on it. I think everyone really likes it.”
With the sun shining brightly overhead, it was a photographic finish Saturday for the Raiders and their supporters as they gathered for pictures after the maiden game.
But, from a football standpoint, they believe there’s more work to do this weekend in Edmonton.
“Oh yeah, we can finish the job all right,” Wicker said with a wide smile.
“We’ve done it in years past. We have the kids for it. We have all the seniors, and we have good juniors, too. We definitely have the team to do it.”
Wicker and coach Orieux credited St. Paul for putting up a stronger fight than the final score might indicate. The Lions pressed in the first quarter, especially, with a couple of long runs on opposite sides of the field. The Raiders answered with options they had refined in practice.
Orieux said some of those practices were held in the fieldhouse on the school campus, enabling focused instructional time in a classroom-like setting free of noise and potentially nasty weather outside.
“You’re not worried about wind and cold,” Orieux said about those fieldhouse sessions. “Kids can listen and pay attention.”
Saturday proved to be an ideal day for football, considering it was Nov. 22.
“Beautiful weather and the kids played great, it was awesome all the way around,” said the Raiders’
head coach.
It was a bonus that they were able to do so on their spiffy field of the future.
“You never know with a construction project, if you’re going to get done on time,” Orieux said. “That snow that happened on the sixth or seventh (of November) slowed things down a little bit. They had to push it off.
“The crew worked hard to finish up and we got that one game, so it’s good.”
Orieux also considers the Raiders, and all the other teams competing in the Alberta playoffs, fortunate just to be playing football, in the aftermath of the labour strife in the province this fall.
“We were surprised that teams came back,” he said. “It was late in the season. They’d been off for five weeks. We just weren’t sure if teachers were going to be in the mood, in Alberta, to come back and start volunteering their time again after the labour issues. But good on them — the ones who came back and gave kids an opportunity to play. We’re happy to participate.”
The Saskatchewan-aligned Raiders were able to continue to practise during the Alberta work stoppage, because the Sask teachers weren’t on strike.
All that extra training time was beneficial on days like Saturday, with St. Paul putting up an early fight and Holy Rosary responding accordingly. The Lions’ Joe Pilipchuk was a particularly daunting assignment.
“That No. 2, we knew he’s that good of an athlete that he can win a game by himself,” Orieux said. “Well, not by himself. He needs a little bit of help.
“But if he gets a crease, he’s gone. You can’t arm-tackle him. He’s too big, he’s too strong and too fast. We knew we had to take care of business with him.
“It was big at the end. With 40 seconds left in the second quarter, we took a timeout on their punt, stopped the clock, and then we were able to go down with another timeout and score a touchdown and go up 30-15. Rather than going into (the break) with just a one-touchdown lead, it was two. That was a big turning point for us.”
The Raiders also recognized the confidence that their young quarterback, Fallscheer, showed in just his third high school game as the starter.
“For a Grade 10 quarterback to come out and do what he did, it’s quite a learning curve for him to jump in there in that situation and be able to perform at a pretty high level,” Orieux said.
“Brady’s first game (as the starter) was also against St. Paul when we played them two weeks ago.”
In the weeks leading up to that 18-13 victory, “he took all first-team reps for a month before we started (the playoffs),” Orieux said of Fallscheer.
“He’s smart, he has great poise and not a lot fazes him. That’s a big defensive line and some tough linebackers coming at him every play and he just hangs in, reads the defence and does pretty good. We’re pretty proud of him.”
In provincial quarter-final action Nov. 15, the Raiders topped the 10th-ranked Stettler Wildcats 48-9.
Holy Rosary and Cardston last played each other in the provincial 3A final in 2023, with the Raiders winning 28-6.
In last year’s Alberta Bowl provincial championship, Holy Rosary defeated Cochrane 22-3.
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