HANLEY – The Hanley Sabers capped off a near perfect season by winning the 1A Provincial 6-man football championships.
The Sabers beat the Kelliher Cobras 30-28 on Nov. 14. The Cobras proved to be the Sabers’ toughest competition of the season, said Brett Kirk, one of the team’s coaches.
The game was fitting of a provincial final, according to a summary posted on the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association website. It states: “The game was back and forth right until the very last whistle. The two excellent teams played their hearts out. Hanley opened the game with an excellent kick return by Chad Freeden setting them up at the Cobras 7. They converted on third down to lead 8-0.
After stopping the Cobras on their first series, Hanley scored again to lead 16-0 after the first quarter. Kelliher then replied early in the second with a one-yard plunge, 16-8. Hanley answered right back to restore their two-touchdown lead, 22-8. Kelliher closed the gap with 10 seconds left in the half to make the halftime score 22-14. Kelliher scored first in the second half to tie the game 22-22. Their defence continued to stop Hanley and the offence scored again at the beginning of the fourth, but failed to convert, 28-22.
With the Sabers on their own 20 and about 7 minutes left, they started their drive. On a second and 10, a possible Cobra interception kept the drive alive. They continued to drive and score with 4:46 remaining, 30-28. On Kelliher’s very first play on the next series, they put the ball on the ground and Hanley recovered on Kelliher’s 30. After a first down, the Cobras stopped Hanley and got the ball back with 1:30 remaining. Kelliher’s offence began to drive, taking it all the way to the Hanley 12-yard line with 3 seconds left. On third down the Cobras’ quarterback and receiver failed to connect in the open. The final score was 30-28 for Hanley.
Kelliher was Hanley’s most difficult opponent of the playoffs. The Sabers hosted Plenty in the first round, treating hometown fans to a 42-7 whopping. Next, the Sabers travelled to Carrot River, whom the Sabers diced 42-14 in the semi-finals, to earn the trip to Kelliher.
Kirk said there is a lot of work that goes into hosting a provincial final and it can be a distraction for the players to be playing at home, so the coaches didn’t mind boarding a bus and playing away so they could focus on winning the game.
Besides, the Hanley faithful made a road trip, boarding a bus of their own.
Kirk said Hanley had as many fans at the game as the host team.
The Sabers ended the regular season 6-1, losing their only game, in overtime, to Clavet. Clavet went on to win the 2A provincial championships.
The Sabers will carry over some key experienced players onto next year’s roster, but the team will lament the loss of its graduating class of Linden Freeden, Chad Freeden, Dusty Doroshenko, Monty Zdunich, Kashtin Dietz, Michael King, Josh Troesch and Matthew Piper.
by Tara de Ryk
November 24-09
[url]http://www.leaderonline.ca/Features/2009/Nov09/HanleySabers.html
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