The Foothills Falcons marked their provincial debut with a silver finish.
Far from just happy to be there for the experience, the Falcons swung for the fences and nearly walked away with the top prize at the senior girls rugby Tier II championships dropping the gold medal tilt 24-19 to powerhouse Winston Churchill, Saturday in Strathmore.
“It was such a dream. Honestly, never in my three years did I imagine we would be making it this far,” said Falcons senior Landry Stasiuk. “To provincials? Never would I have imagined. Being able to beat the teams and get silver. I’m on cloud nine, we’re all on cloud nine.”
Foothills showed no signs of nerves in the provincial opener, shaking off an early try to blitz Lloydminster Composite by a 34-5 count.
Game two followed a similar script as the Falcons surged back to dispatch Sturgeon Composite 36-17 in the semifinal.
A date with the two-time defending champion Griffins was next on the docket.
The Lethbridge school jumped out to a 17-0 lead by using the weather to its advantage.
The Griffins scored two trys, one directly and one indirectly, through deep kicks with the wind at their back to put the Falcons on their heels in the first-half.
“We knew it was coming, especially with the wind,” said Falcons coach Jeff Mason. “We didn’t take advantage of it in the second. That’s a growth area for us as well, we’ve got to add that (kicking) attack.”
Foothills wrestled back the momentum late in the opening half when centre Krystal LeLonde was brought down at the goal line leading to a penalty try and 17-7 score.
The Falcons stayed on the front-foot following the restart and quickly found themselves back in the try-zone when scrum-half Tara Fenner ran in for the 20-yard major.
“The coaches constantly tell us this game is mental first, physical second,” said Falcons forward Mackenzie Sutton. “Anytime we made a big tackle or a big steal it just changes the momentum and we feel that. Somebody decided to make a decision themselves and the rest of us followed.”
The Griffins put the contest out of reach with five minutes on the clock with a crucial insurance try.
Not to be outdone, Foothills responded by scoring on the final play of the game with Fenner putting the finishing touches on a long drive set up by a bulldozing run from fly-half Larissa Little.
“We’re like the little town from middle of nowhere and we came here and fought hard,” said Falcons No. 8 Annaliese Curtis. “That (Churchill) team I’m sure they came out thinking ‘oh they only have 1000 kids that go to their school we’re just going to trample them, this will be an easy win.’
“We fought hard right to the end, lost by five points and I can’t be more proud of my team.”
The narrow defeat was the Falcons’ first of the season.
“We had the talent, we had the mindset we just didn’t have the experience to play the final game at that level,” Mason said. “The (Griffins) are three years running and they have that experience in all of their players.”
Next year, so will Foothills.
The Falcons lose just five players to graduation in the off-season.
“Rugby is alive and strong at Foothills Composite and we’ve got a great program coming in now with lots of Grade 10s and younger joining us,” the coach added. “So I think we’re in a good spot in developing and supporting rugby in the foothills area.”
