Meredith Kerr
Journal Staff
The St. Paul Bengals ended their championship run disappointed after a 58-6 loss against the Bonnyville Bandits on Nov. 3 at Walsh Field.
The loss was in stark contrast to last year’s championship game that saw the Bengals raising the Wheatland Football League trophy. The Bengals' head coach Todd Tanasichuk said overall, it was a good year.
“We were rebuilding, so to make the championship game we were happy with that, but of course once you get there you want to perform better than what we did on Saturday,” said Tanasichuk.
The Bandits' head coach Mickey Fagnan said last year was a learning experience.
“St. Paul has excellent coaches, very seasoned and experienced. There’s always something up their sleeve . . . We’ve tried to eliminate those mistakes (from last year) so we didn’t have any issues,” Fagnan said.
The Bandits controlled the game for the first three quarters, keeping the Bengals off the scoreboard until early in the fourth quarter, when a long pass to Luke Pashulka got the Bengals their six points of the game.
“I was a little disappointed with Bonnyville’s desire to put more points up once the game got out of hand, but they were very deserving of the win. I just wish we would have played better,” said Tanasichuk.
Down 37-0 at half time, the Bengals expected the Bandits to step back a little, but that's not what happened.
“Usually in those moments, a coach will back off, but it’s just the way it went,” said Tanasichuk, noting that being able to have a bit of success in the final quarter made the Bengals feel a bit better about the game.
“They (Bandits) were a dominant team,” he said.
Bandits player Logan Church said the team came together defensively.
“What really stood out was our defence, and how it’s improved over the games. We’ve had some mix-ups, with the numbers and how many people are on the field, but, we really handled that in the last week of practices,” said Church.
Going forward, Tanasichuk said the Bengals will be a lot more experienced next season. The team’s year-end banquet will happen in December and all the players will have a few months off before training ramps up again in the spring.
“We’ll start rebuilding for next year in early 2019. We usually get the kids going in the gym a little bit in February and getting them starting to learn football, especially for anyone new who wants to come out in the spring.”
The next stop for the Bandits is the Northern Finals Championship against the Grande Prairie Broncos Nov. 9 at Walsh Field.
With files from Robynne Henry, Bonnyville Nouvelle
