It was a bittersweet championship game for the Westlock Thunderbirds football team as they faced the St. Paul Lions last Saturday afternoon in the Division 2 Wheatland Football League final.
Bitter, because they lost the game 45-21 to the Division 1 St. Paul Lions, who finished at the bottom of Division 1 in the regular season, but sweet because the T-Birds went undefeated in their regular season play.
“We’ve encouraged the kids to think of themselves as the Div. 2 champions,” coach Jon Kramer said. “They’re the strongest team in the division, hands down.”
The boys had to face the tougher team because of a quirk in the WFL this year — with five teams in each division, they dropped the lowest-place Division 1 team into the Division 2 playoffs to ensure nobody’s season got cut too short.
Kramer said while the loss wasn’t ideal, the team nonetheless appreciates the challenges that came as a result of the shuffle.
“I’m pretty happy with the way things worked out. We had some really meaningful, challenging football games to play,” he said.
At Saturday’s game in St. Paul, both teams had an extra challenge to contend with — the several inches of snow that fell the night before. They used leaf-blowers to clean off parts of the field so they could still play, but it wasn’t easy.
“They cleaned off each five-yard line, so there were snow drifts the kids had to jump until they got packed down,” he said. “It was a bit of a rude awakening for both teams right at the start.”
In terms of on-the-field action, the Thunderbirds flew out of the gates with an obvious hunger, scoring on their first drive. Unfortunately the Lions were in the mood for a bit of a hunt, answer with two touchdowns of their own.
Kramer said there was the potential to change the flow of the game near the end of the first half, with the T-Birds down 21-13 but in good scoring position.
“We were down 21-13 and drove down the field, then got stopped on their goal line,” he said. “We were inches away from evening out the score at halftime.”
The Thunderbirds have come back from a deficit before, so remained very confident going into the second half — but the Lions came out too strong for them.
“We’d been down quite a few times this season and came back and found ways to win, so we weren’t too fazed by that,” he said. “But in the first couple of minutes in the second half they just exploded.”
Two touchdowns in quick succession widened the margin, and while Westlock did find their way into the end zone again, they fell 45-21.
The T-Birds still walked away from the game with their heads held high, hanging their hats on what was an incredibly successful season.
“The guys were pretty encouraged about what they’ve accomplished as a group,” Kramer said.
All that’s left now is to hand out the player awards — planned for Nov. 18 at Memorial Hall — and start looking forward to their spring camp.
