In 2009, the Peewee Cyclones football team shocked the province by winning the B-side championship and winning a silver medal at provincials. That year was the first time in Football Alberta history a town, not a city, was in the provincial finals. Fast-forward two years later and that same group of boys is still making history.
Last Saturday, on the snowy, cold gridiron, the no. 1 ranked Mighty Cyclones battled for another league championship, but this time on the A-side of the league against the no. 2 ranked Strathmore Spartans.
The Cyclones started the game with an unusually slow pace and only managed to score one touchdown in the first two quarters with a short run in by Elek Heimer, putting the Cyclones up 8-0 at halftime.
“We had a tough time getting things going on offence,” said offensive coordinator James Thompson. “The snow prevented both teams from really running the ball well.”
The team, in typical Cyclones fashion, came out flying in the second half, scoring three quick touchdowns by Joel Ray and Jeremy Klessens, who ran one in on offence and intercepted and ran in a touchdown on defence.
Momentum was now completely on the Cyclones’ side with the Cyclone defence stopping all attacks and the offence pushing the yardstick on every play. The Cyclones turned to the throwing game to take the snow factor out. Quarterback Austin Thompson threw for a new personal record of 102 yards and Jeremy Klessens got in on the throwing game with a 35-yard throw to a wide-open Thomas Layden, who caught and ran it in for a touchdown. Riley Gagnon also ran in another long distance run for his third touchdown of the season and Joel Ray ran in his second of the game.
The Cyclones’ defence, at the end of the game, managed to push the Spartans back negative 78 yards and, for the second straight playoff game, shut the other team out.
“This defence continuously surprises me on just how much better they can get,” stated head coach Wally Genz. “They only know to go 110 per cent.”
At the end of the game, in front of the largest local crowd to date, the Cyclones defeated the Spartans 52-0 to be declared the Tier III Champions; a first for Innisfail. The team moves on to its final game with a record of 8-0.
On this same day, the best teams in Edmonton and area battled it out to represent the north while the same occurred in Calgary to represent the south. Next Saturday the northern rep (Leduc Wildcats), will take on the southern rep (Calgary Colts), to see who will face the central rep (Innisfail Cyclones) in the provincial final.
The provincial final will be right here in Innisfail November 19th with a tentative start time of 1 p.m. The Cyclones have two weeks to prepare for what promises to be a formidable team and a history-making game.
