The Central Alberta Buccaneers only have two blemishes on their Alberta Football League record this season and both came from the Fort McMurray Monarchs.
The last one, a 35-17 defeat at Great Chief Park in the final game of the regular season left a bitter taste behind for the Bucs and they are already looking ahead to the league final for a rematch with Fort McMurray.
“Any time in a season after a loss you want to come back and answer with a big win and that goes double for playoffs,” said team spokesman and offensive lineman Vince Roth.
“We’ve got no option but to win now. Winner moves on and we don’t want our season to be over and we want to be playing football on September 15.”
Before the point, the Bucs will need to brush aside the Calgary Wolfpack in the AFL semifinal on Aug. 18. Calgary finished the season 4-3-1 but were beat by the Buccaneers 70-25 on June 23. Roth knows the Wolfpack have improved since that contest but believes his team is very motivated heading into the game.
“They’ve become a better team, so I think we’re wise enough to not totally sleep on them,” Roth said.
The Bucs, with a 6-2 record scored 395 points this season and allowed just 132. The Wolfpack on the other hand, scored 221 and allowed 257. Calgary did win their final three games of the regular season to push into first in the AFL Division 2.
One big question mark for the Bucs is the health of quarterback Brandon Leyh.
Leyh was the top quarterback in the AFL this season, but took a nasty hit early in the third quarter of the final regular season game and did not return to play. Roth said Leyh should be good to go Saturday if needed and healthy for the league final should they make it.
“We’ll wait and see. He’s a tough guy. The guy is competitive and a gamer,” He said.
With backup Judah Knip unavailable, the Bucs will likely lean on Jarrett Burzak against the Wolfpack. He was 6-for-16 on the year with 100 yards of passing offence.
Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Setters Place at Great Chief Park and it might be the last Bucs home game of the season. Roth said that is reason enough for fans to make the trip to the field on Saturday.
“I think we will put on a competitive show. The Wolfpack is a better team than we played back in June. They seemed to have gelled since June. So they will put forward a tougher product for us to play against,” Roth said.
“The adversity we’ve dealt with the last half of the season is probably good for the team.”
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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