Two dynasties continued to unfold Wednesday at Titans Park, with Red Deer’s two high schools experiencing the best and the worst of both matches.
The Lindsay Thurber Raiders captured a 10th consecutive Central Alberta High School Rugby League boys’ title with a 62-0 thrashing of the Notre Dame Cougars. Meanwhile, the female Cougars clawed the Raiders 38-0 in the girls’ final, garnering a fifth consecutive crown for the school.
“We’ve had a good run. Lindsay Thurber gives us a good fight every year but this is probably the most athletic and talented team I’ve coached in a while,” said Notre Dame girls head coach Ryan Sawula. “We’ve been building this program at our school and a lot of vets have been recruiting players. It’s become a bit of a culture around Notre Dame, and I think that’s really helped us.”
Camille Waddell and Wane Kruger each scored two tries for the girls’ champions. Single tries were contributed by Allison Taylor and Alex Gustafson, while Taylor added four converts.
The Cougars will compete in the provincial championship tournament June 11-12 in Lethbridge. Notre Dame’s best finish in the Alberta finals was third two years ago, and Sawula and co-coach Anita Larose are confident the current edition of the Cougars can challenge for gold this year.
“We’re hoping we can be in the gold-medal final,” said Sawula, whose team finished fifth last year. “I really believe that this will be our best showing at provincials. The girl are pumped, they’re peaking right now and we’ve done a lot of team building stuff the last couple of weeks.”
As the score indicated, the male Raiders totally dominated the boys’ final.
“That’s the best game I think they’ve played this year,” said Raiders assistant coach Lonnie Amundson. “They didn’t give Notre Dame anything. It was 20 to 25 minutes into the game before Notre Dame actually touched the ball.
“It was beyond what we as coaches expected coming into the game. The guys showed up today and they played well.”
For captain and senior Grady Bowd, it was his third straight Central Alberta title.
“That’s three in a row for me and 10 straight for the program. That’s quite an accomplishment,” said Bowd, who scored two tries and booted six converts.
The Raiders were bronze-medalists at last year’s provincials, and Bowd suggested the team will be disappointed with a similar showing at Lethbridge.
“We have a lot of good athletes this year. We’re not so big, but we’re well-rounded with a lot of guys who aren’t afraid to tackle. It’s been a fun year,” said Bowd. “We should be able to fight for the gold this year, we have a good chance of coming out on top. Everyone here is wanting to play more. It’s not like we’re done, we’re still going hard.”
Outside of a tournament at Titans Park, the Raiders were never tested this year. Bowd, however, is confident his team will be able to adjust to the stiffer competition they’ll face at the provincials.
“Our boys are composed. We know how to play consistently,” he said. “There’s some good teams out there but if we play our game I don’t think anyone will keep up with us. We have strong starts. We come out fast and try to pound teams back, and then we just keep going from there.”
Ryan Clark and Kyle Pickett each added two tries for the Raiders, while single tries were contributed by Seth Halman, Jordan Sharling, Luke Madill and Ramandon Hasing.
In the boys consolation final, the Hunting Hills Lighting got two tries from Ryan McLellan and a single major from Byron Grande in a 19-12 win over Lindsay Thurber II. Jake Curtis had two converts for the winners.
In the girls Tier 2 final, Rimbey downed Rocky Mountain House 22-12, while Rocky beat Sylvan Lake 12-10 in the boys Tier 2 final.
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com