This is what the Foothills Falcons wanted at the season’s start — a chance at a provincial championship.

All the practices, hits, blood, sweat and, yes, even a few tears, paid dividends Saturday as the Falcons won the Tier II Southern Alberta championship. The Falcons downed the St. Mary’s Saints 26-10 in Okotoks to win the south and earn a berth in the provincial championship game Friday in Edmonton.

Foothills Falcon Tyler Guenard has yearned for this opportunity for as long as his teammates and maybe longer.

“I was so excited,” said Guenard of his second half touchdown that sealed a 26-10 victory.

“I was like, finally, I’ve been playing football for six years and we’ve never made it past semis. ”

Guenard punched in two touchdowns on the day, none more important than his 33-yard run to put the Falcons up 25-10 with under two minutes to play.

The Falcons and St. Mary’s have become regular playoff dance partners and early in Saturday’s game the Saints were taking the lead.

The Saints marched down the field on their opening drive and took an early 7-0 lead.

Despite struggling to run the ball early the Falcons responded when Guenard scored his first touchdown in the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7.

St. Mary’s drove down the field again looking to close out the half with a major but a penalty negated a touchdown pass and the Saints settled for a field goal to go up 10-7 at the half.

After some changes to blocking schemes during halftime the Falcons came out of the locker room and broke the game open wide.

“We got more fired up because we realized that these guys are here to play, we needed to come out stronger and that’s what we did,” said Guenard.

Falcon runningback Trace McLellan-Eeles was uncharacteristically held scoreless Saturday but he was certainly not held in check as he carried the Falcons on his back in the second half breaking two runs of more than 60 yards to set up scores.

“Trace is such a competitor,” said Falcons head coach Kevin Klotz. “The team feeds off of him and when he gets it going, they get pretty excited.”

Falcon quarterback Brad Karl tossed a touchdown to Chris McCabe with two minutes left on the clock in the third quarter to catapult the Falcons to a 14-10 lead, their first of the game.

Ollie Thompson missed a fourth quarter field goal but the Saints conceded a single giving the Falcons a five-point lead in the fourth.

Thompson made good on the miss at 2:11 of the fourth splitting the uprights to increase the lead to 25-10. He also added a single to make the final 26-10.

The Saints did not help themselves on Saturday as turnovers proved costly for St. Mary’s. The Saints turned over the ball six times including an interception and three turnovers on downs in the second half. Falcons defensiveback Joey Koshman sealed the Saints’ fate in the fourth quarter when an interception landed in his arms after a St. Mary’s flea-flicker went awry in the fourth quarter.

“I think we have been plus five or six on giveaways and takeaways and we have been proud of that,” said Klotz of his defence.

Next up the Falcons, ranked No. 3 in Tier II, travel to Foote Field in Edmonton to face the Bishop McNally High School Tigers. The Tigers, ranked No. 8 in the Tier II provincial standings, upset the second-ranked Austin O’Brien Crusaders, 25-8 in the North final last weekend.

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