Bulldogs sink teeth into rugby gold
The Winston Churchill Bulldogs boys rugby team picked the ideal weekend to have their best performance of the season.
They’re now Alberta Schools Athletic Association Tier II provincial rugby champions as a result following a 29-10 win over Calgary Robert Thirsk in the gold medal game Saturday afternoon in Calgary.
“We had some ups and downs throughout the season, a couple of losses against some good teams,” said Bulldogs head coach Jon Dick, whose team won the bronze medal last year and the gold medal the year prior. “But we were able to deal with adversity, work hard and keep plugging away. I told them if they keep doing this, it will pay off eventually and it did. They had a great tournament. I felt they played their best three games of the season this weekend, which is nice to see them playing their best rugby at the end of the season when they need to.”
The Bulldogs weren’t the only southern Alberta teams to come away with some provincial hardware Saturday.
The Raymond Comets girls team captured the girls Tier I championship courtesy a 24-7 win over Notre Dame, while the Taber W.R. Myers Rebels girls won the Tier III hardware with a 46-22 win over William E Hay.
In the Tier III girls bronze medal game, Fort Macleod F.P. Walshe beat the Winston Churchill Griffins 37-26.
The Bulldogs started the weekend with a 64-7 over Lloydminster Composite Friday and earned a berth in the gold medal game with a 45-7 decision over Sturgeon Composite, also on Friday.
Winston Churchill held a 12-5 lead at the half in Saturday’s championship.
“In the second half it could’ve went either way, but our guys came out and worked really hard and were able to put up a couple of scores midway through. I’m proud of our guys, they worked really hard,” said Dick. “We were able to get to the breakdown quick and made sure we maintained possession. The ball security was a little bit better in the second half, so we didn’t cough up a couple of bad giveaways that allowed them to capitalize.”
Taylor Mason had two tries for Winston Churchhill.
Nyles Clark, Eric Delauw and Sean Adams chipped in with one try each. Yannis Boenn had two converts. “He had a great tournament and worked hard all weekend. It paid off in the final and he was able to run in for some scores,” said Dick of Mason, adding the likes of Adams, Blayze Elder, Matt Stewart, Mason and Josh Peters showed great leadership in the gold medal weekend.
In the Tier II boys Consolation final, F.P. Walshe defeated St. Joseph 35-32.
The Vulcan County Central girls won the Tier III girls consolation side, beating Pincher Creek Matthew Halton 57-12.
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