Raiders 21 Ti-Cats 19
It wasn’t easy, then again provincial play isn’t supposed to be.
The Lindsay Thurber Raiders were able to push aside a pair of major injuries and hang for a 21-19 victory over the Leduc Ti-Cats in provincial bantam Tier II semifinal play at Great Chief Park Saturday afternoon.
The Raiders lost Ben Pasiuk, who is one of the team’s leading receivers and starting safety with a broken wrist that needed surgery, and Bryce Maki with an ankle injury in the first half. Maki also plays both ways, but is one of the team’s top linebackers.
“We showed so much heart today,” said Raiders head coach Dean Pasiuk. “We could have folded our tents when Ben went down, but the boys rebounded and then when Bryce was injured we were scrambling.”
But Pasiuk had a little talk with his troops at halftime.
“We told everyone coming in to do their job. That the game would be won or lost in the second half and they came out and played with every ounce of their being. That’s the say they’ve been all season.”
The Raiders held a 14-0 lead at the half on a pair of touchdowns by Sam Visely and a pair of converts by Cody Hawkes. Visely scored on a 41 yard run and a 78-yard interception on the only pass the Ti-Cats tried in the first half.
“That (interception) was a huge play for us,” said Pasiuk.
The Ti-Cats came into the game noted for their diversified running attack and they used that in the second half to wear down the LTCHS defence and get back into the game.
Junior Hennig scored on a two-yard run at 3:37 of the third quarter and on a 62-yard gallop at 7:41. Benjamin Gregg kicked a convert on the second score to make it 21-13. River Jonasson scored the Raiders third major six minutes into the third quarter. Hawkes added the convert.
The Ti-Cats made it real interesting at 7:31 of the fourth quarter when power running back Billy Shea broke lose for a 57-yard touchdown. The Ti-Cats tried to run in the two-point convert, but the runner was ruled down when he took the snap.
“We knew all along it would be a tough game, they played well in both their league semifinal and final,” said Pasiuk. “They have some big, tough kids.”
The Raiders could have got the break they needed late when Leduc’s Tanner Smith Maunder was injured with 57.1 seconds left and the ambulance was called. The break seemed to revitalize the Raiders defence.
“We had a hard time stopping them in the fourth quarter and it wore us down,” said Pasiuk, who gambled on third down and seven following the Leduc injury. Vesely came up inches short of the first down, on what looked to be a poor placement of the ball. However, the Raiders defence came up big and they took over the ball with 0.9 seconds remaining.
“We debated whether we should kick on third down or go for it and when we came up short the defence showed up when they needed to,” said Pasiuk. “We could have been on the ropes big time.”
In the end the Ti-Cats threw the ball only four times.
“Their strength was their running game,” added Pasiuk. “We knew they’d score and get their points, but we felt if we controlled them and got some first downs when we needed to and controlled the clock that would be huge. I thought for the most part we did a good job of clock management.”
The Raiders advance to the provincial final next Saturday against either the Calgary Colts or Medicine Hat Hawks at Great Chief Park.
In other provincial semifinal play, the Notre Dame Cougars lost 54-7 to the Parkside Pythons of Medicine Hat in Tier IV play and Cochrane downed the Rocky Mountain House Rebels 47-0 in Tier III action.
drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com
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