By Robb Fenton
The Holy Rosary Raiders are in their second straight championship game, but are planning on a different result.
The Raiders were in tough this past weekend, but battled through cold and wet conditions to beat the St. Paul Lions 21-3 to advance to the Wheatland Football League finals.
“It feels great. We just found out we get to play the Barons again, so it will be a tough one, but we’re looking forward to it,” Raiders linebacker, Leif Davidson said after Saturday’s semi-final win.
It wasn’t a dominant win by an stretch, as the Raiders trailed 3-0 after one quarter and didn’t score until about five minutes left in the half.
Ty Wilson hooked up with Drew Bexson on a 23-yard touchdown pass and ran a one-yard score in to give the Raiders the 13-3 lead heading into half time.
“This is a whole different team, it’s a new set of guys and we’re ready for the challenge,” Davidson said, adding he’s already looking forward to this weekend.
The entire Raiders team knew they would be in tough and weren’t surprised with the way their opponents came out.
It was a hard hitting game right from the opening kickoff, but the Raiders stuck with their game plan and eventually it paid off.
“It was good, we get a second chance at the big game and we’re looking forward to it,” Raiders coach, Vince Orieux said.
It took a while for the offence of the Raiders to click, but luckily for the team, the defence, which has been almost unbeatable all year, stepped up and held the team in the game early on.
“One side of the team usually comes up stronger than the other and Saturday it was the defensive side. Maybe that’s a good thing, we saved a few points for this weekend,” he said with a laugh.
Barons
The Lloyd Comp Barons defeated Cold Lake 28-15 in the other semi-final to set up the second consecutive all Lloydminster showdown.
For a full weekend recap, see Tuesday's Source.
For a full preview of Saturday's final, see Thursday's Source and check out www.lloydminstersource.com.