The Central Alberta Buccaneers ended their season a game earlier than they hoped for on Saturday in Calgary.
The Bucs dropped their Alberta Football League semifinal game 40-8 to the Calgary Gators and saw the year come to an end.
Offensive coordinator and slotback Jesse McPhail said despite the score he was proud of the way the team came out and battled in the semifinal.
“We came out firing and I thought our defence played absolutely lights out. We did have them on their heels a couple times but as with a lot of things in life you have too many mistakes and too many little things, it adds up to a big thing,” he said.
“Ultimately it wasn’t the end result we wanted. I’d say in the first half we put up a good fight and then the second half there was just mistakes that piled on.”
McPhail explained that there was plenty of doubt about whether they would be even able to field a team this season, so all things considered a 6-2 campaign was a welcome result.
“I don’t want to sound like a pessimist but I think we surprised a lot of people. Including ourselves. We were kind of in limbo back in January and February. We weren’t really sure what direction the team was going,” McPhail said.
“Fred Knip came through for us and he was able to take hold of the ship. I’d say overall it was a wildly successful season.”