It’s the end of the line for the Cochrane Lions peewee football team. They play their last game of the season Nov. 16 against the Lacombe Rockets, in the provincial Tier 3 championship game.
The undefeated squad of 11- 12-year-olds dominated the Calgary Peewee Football Association season, going 8-0 before claiming the Div. 3 city title Nov. 2 with an 18-12 win over the Calgary Broncos.
Peewee Lions head coach Paul Vaillancourt is confident Cochrane is ready to tackle what he says is a team relying heavily on one player.
“They seem to be a one-man show,” Vaillancourt said of the Rockets. “They seem to have a talented player who gets the ball 80 per cent of the time.”
The Lions have been feasting on uni-dimensional teams in the playoffs. And, unlike teams they’ve been beating, the Lions run a balanced attack with quarterback Xavier Vaillancourt at the controls. His offensive weapons include fleet-footed slotbacks like Dylan Neis, and ball carriers like Ethan Noble, Dawson Gladue and Kyle Martin. And, when he’s not blocking for those running backs, Isaiah Springer can mow ’em down like a tank. And the defence, coming off an epic three-down, goal-line stand to end the game in the city-championship, is also good to go.
“We’ve accomplished what we set out to do at the beginning which was to go undefeated in league play and win the city championship,” Vaillancourt said. “I’ve told the guys to just enjoy this.”
