It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
The Foothills Eagles shrugged off a tough start to the season, got healthy and rolling at the right time and rode a dominant run defence and balanced offensive attack to a 29-15 win over the Calgary Bulldogs to take home the Calgary Bantam Football Association Tier II city championship, Nov. 4 at Shouldice Park.
“We’ve had a season where we’ve suffered a lot of injuries,” said Bantam Eagles head coach Tim Henderson. “We couldn’t roster full squads. When we got into the playoffs, some of those healthy bodies were coming back. We played the Cowboys, the Colts and things were just getting better and better.
“And today it’s just the culmination of all them working together and finally being together.”
Foothills, who finished with a 3-5 record in the regular season with one win its first five games, took two of three playoff matches.
In the city final, the Eagles avenged a narrow three-point defeat to the Bulldogs in the regular season with a commitment to stopping the run and Bulldogs powerful tailback Wence Nkeongoh.
“We figured the Bulldogs runningback is probably the best in the league and we had to do everything we can to contain him,” Henderson said. “Our defence came out strong and did a great job.”
Calgary opened the scoring on a quarterback keeper with its running game proving tough to handle, but the tides turned in short order.
“We just had to focus up, watch (Nkeongoh), focus on him and we just had our energy up and just played our game,” said Eagles linebacker Teigan McDougall. “Those (turnover on downs) boosted our energy through the roof, we played amazing after that.”
Foothills’ multi-pronged offence started to roll with runningback Austin Doidge corralling a diving catch at midfield and fellow-tailback Daniel Bowers taking the next play 39 yards into the end zone.
“The first quarter was hard, second quarter we turned it around, started making plays and doing our blocks,” said Eagles quarterback Ethan Renaud.
“It’s pretty hard for the defences to figure out what to block, what to think of, you’ve got to keep your mind open to multiple decisions.”
In the second half, Bowers, the playoff MVP, found a hole up the gut for a 68-yard touchdown run with Calgary scoring on the ensuing kickoff and adding a rouge to level the score at 15-15.
It was all Eagles from there.
Doidge, the player of the game in the final, scored on a goalline catch and run from Renaud and the quarterback added the late insurance on a fake hand-off and run into the end zone from goal formation in the late stages.
“That’s the good thing about our offensive scheme is we’re not focused on a player, it’s a whole offence and we’re able to spread the ball out a little bit more,” Henderson said. “Today, we’ve been able to do that with bootlegs and being deceitful, we did great there.
“We ended the game with two long drives, we killed the clock, no penalties and just getting first downs and if that doesn’t get the bench fired up, I don’t know what will. Our quarterback did great, he was composed. It was a bit of a rough season for him, but, like everyone else, as the playoffs went on he just kept getting better.”
The Eagles advance to the Football Alberta Tier III provincial championship.
Foothills will meet the Tier II Edmonton area representative next weekend in the capital city.
“It means a lot,” Renaud said. “I can’t wait until next weekend to go up to Edmonton and see what other teams are like.”
For more information on the team visit gofa.ca.
