It was a pitched battle with loud fans cheering both sides, as the St. Paul Bengals welcomed the Bonnyville Bandits to home field last Saturday afternoon, but in the end, it was the Bengals who would come out on top, 28 - 26, punching their ticket to the Wheatland Football League’s bantam championships.
Third year veteran Jayden Duchesne notes he has not been to the championship yet, but his older brother was part of the squad when they last competed for the league title, back in 2010. Matching that success, was, in one word – “Amazing,” said Duchesne, who scored three TDs for the team in the game.
“Bonnyville played very good in the first quarter,” he said, adding the game was close throughout the battle. “We lucked out with our defense in the end.”
Bonnyville had lost to the Bengals earlier in the season, but both teams improved over the year, and coach Travis Rolheiser noted the Bandits came on field with a fierce determination to avenge their earlier loss.
“They gave us all we could handle – they’re a very good football team.”
That determination would fuel the Bandits to getting on the scoreboard first, with a touchdown and a kick at 7:22 in the first quarter, but in the second, Duchesne picked up the ball off a hand-off and ran the ball in to tie the game at 7 – 7 at the close of the half.
The second half would see the two teams trading touchdowns once again, with Bonnyville’s quarterback throwing a long pass for a touchdown, but the Bengals carried the ball in for a touchdown to tie up the game at 14 – 14 in the third quarter.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Bonnyville’s #23 ran the ball almost the entire length of the field off a punt return to score and give Bonnyville the lead once again, at 14 – 20, and the Bandits’ fans roared their appreciation, but the kick would go awry, which would be one of two missed kicks that would make the difference in the game.
At 7:05 in the fourth quarter, the Bengals were within striking distance of the goal, and Duchesne pushed his way in for a TD. While the team missed their first extra point attempt, with the kick seeing the ball hit the post, a flag on the play would see them take a second attempt, with that successful kick giving them a one-point lead for the first time in the game, at 21 – 20.
When Bonnyville’s #30 followed up with a long run to give the Bandits a first and goal attempt, followed by a TD, the team would once again miss their kick, but would hold the lead at 21 – 26. With less than five minutes to go in the game, the Bengals employed a fake hand-off that got the Bandits to bite and led to a touchdown, with the team following it up with the one-point convert to finish at 28 – 26.
Bonnyville’s fans shouted foul over calls, and got increasingly angry as the last minute or so of play ran down without the clock stopping, leading to the Bandits no opportunity for a last minute comeback play. The fans began arguing with the referees, leading to a very heated end to the game, even as the players were shaking hands and heading off the field.
While some fans were sour about what they saw as poor refereeing decisions, Bandits coach Mickey Fagnan said that no referee is perfect and not every call gets made but he felt that neither side had an unfair advantage.
“It looked fair to me.”
In the end, the Bengals were able to run one particular play consistently well to gain yardage and employed blocks that shut down the Bandits, while the Bandits were unable to “ante up” with the kicks that would have made the difference, said Fagnan. However, he said he was happy with the game as a “good way to end” the season.
“We were neck-in-neck – it was hard-fought,” he said. “We wanted to come out and battle and we did.”
Rolheiser said the team had three weeks to prepare for this contest, and had been holding practices and watching game film to steel themselves for the match-up, which proved to be as heated a battle as they expected.
The difference-maker, Duchesne felt was - “We wanted it more in the end.”
Now, he felt the team has to focus on getting faster, improving blocking and defense, as it prepares to face the Lloydminster Mustangs. The Mustangs team has gone undefeated this season and will pose the Bengals’ biggest test of a stellar season.
The game takes place on Saturday at 1 p.m. on St. Mary’s field, with a championship title and a chance for play in provincials in the offing.
