It took the heart of a Lion to knock off the champs.
The Sylvan Lake Lions won the Bantam football league championship on Saturday at Great Chief Park, beating the Notre Dame Cougars 20-6.
Notre Dame went undefeated all season this year up until the final and was also unbeaten last year on their way to a bantam provincial title.
Lions head coach Geoff Rambaut praised the work of his defence, who held the Cougars scoreless in the second half of the game.
Our defence is unreal. They didn’t allow them to get any yardage, that was pretty crucial,” he said.
“In the first game we played, they played pretty well, Notre Dame had about three big plays and that was costly for us. We emphasized that this week and we were able to capitalize and our offence took advantage of a couple turnovers.”
The play of the game came late in the third quarter with the Lions leading 8-6. Running back Cody Peever took a handoff from quarterback Brett Bylsma, but then flipped a pass back to Bylsma who was wide open and scrambled in for a 35-yard touchdown.
“Our quarterback has been talking about that for four years, since peewee football,” Rambaut said.
“I’ve coached him for four years and at some point I told him we’d pull it out and I guess it was a timely play. I was nervous, we’ve never practiced it against a team before.”
The only score for the Cougars was an interception return for a score by Grayson Chabot in the second quarter.
Mason Remple capped off the scoring for Sylvan Lake with an interception return for a touchdown on the final play of the game.
“Notre Dame is an unreal football team. They’re defending league champs and defending provincial champs. We came in with a roster smaller than them and we were able to come out on top,” Rambaut said.
“It says a lot about our team. We put in a lot of work this week. We scouted them pretty good. We knew what they were going to do and we were able to take advantage of that and execute.”
Sylvan Lake will play in the Bantam Tier II provincial semi-final on Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. at Great Chief Park.
The Lacombe Raiders knocked off the Ponoka Broncs 25-8 in the Tier III final. Lacombe with play the Lethbridge Junior Cougars on Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. in Lacombe.
In peewee football play, the Lacombe Explosion beat the Red Deer Hornets 40-0. The Explosion will play on Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. against Lloydminster at MEGlobal Athletic Park.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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