Skip to content

Falcons' speed wears down Knights

A combination better known for football helped the Foothills Falcons win a rugby match against their cross-town rivals.

A combination better known for football helped the Foothills Falcons win a rugby match against their cross-town rivals.

Foothills Falcon Trey Kellogg grabbed the ball off a ruck and ran 20 yards before pitching to Brendan Lowry who cut up-field and scampered 30 more yards for the try to put the Falcons up 19-15 with a approximately 1:20 left in their Big Sky Rugby Union match Thursday at HTA.

“Dan Kovalchuk did a nice job on the HTA lineout and got the tip and on the ruck we had a good push and I picked the ball up,” Kellogg said. “I got that outside edge, got their wing to bite on me and I gave it to Brendan and he made one guy miss and went in.”

It was a combination often seen in the Falcons’ provincial football championship run in which Kellogg was the quarterback and Lowry a slotback.

Kellogg also proved he could run against the Knights.

He would score on the final play of the game when he took a pitch from speedster Mwambi Chali and cut up field for a 60-yard try to make the final 26-15.

“Mwambi made the great play, reversed the whole field — I don’t know how he did it — and got the ball to me,” Kellogg said.

In the early going it appeared the Knights would have the town’s bragging rights. They opened the scoring on a 33-yard penalty kick by Austin Reiber to make it 3-0.

They would up their lead to a 10-0 when captain Spencer Buck took it in from about seven yards out.

The Falcons got on the scoreboard in the final minute of the first half when Lowry worked his way in from 22-yards out to cut the lead to 10-5.

The Knights were also able to keep the Falcons’ wings tucked in during the opening 30 minutes.

“Their 9 to 12s are very dynamic and good rugby players,” Spencer Buck said of the Falcons. “We were able to force them out of bounds. I thought we controlled them in the first half.”

The Knights got off to a good start in the second half when they extended their lead to 15-5 on a try by Conor McGee to open the second half.

Then the Falcons took flight on a smart play by a young experienced player, fly-half Thomas Isherwood.

“They took a penalty and they were getting mad at each other,” Isherwood said. “I took a tap and went. I threw a fake pass, saw a gap and I took it.”

Isherwood didn’t stop for about 40 yards, scoring the try right in the middle and his convert made it 15-12.

The two teams kept it close to the vest until Kellogg-and-Lowry gave Foothills their first lead with less than two minutes remaining.

Captain Buck said they will learn from the loss.

“We got tired after I thought we controlled them in the first half,” Buck said. “We didn’t push them out, they score their long trys on the wing.

“They have the best athletes in town playing on the wing, Trey, Brendan, Mwambi, really, really punched us with their outside speed.”

The Knights hung in there despite not having Jonathan Leggett who was out with an injury.

It was a huge loss — the 230-pound Leggett has been a force with HTA the entire season.

Although Buck hates losing, he enjoyed the game.

“That was a really fun game, it sucks we lost but it’s so good to have a rivalry in town and have a competitive game,” Buck said. “I think it is going to be a really good third game.”

The friendly rivalry is far from done.

The Falcons and the Knights will meet May 25 at HTA for the South Central Zone Tier I championship to determine who will advance to provincials June 3-4 in Lethbridge.

The Falcons are undefeated in Big Sky play with a 4-0 record, while HTA dropped to 3-2.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks