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Falcons take opening salvo over HTA

Give the first round to the Foothills Falcons — and maybe there will be two more editions of the Okotoks boys high school rugby rivalry. That will be fine with Falcons captain Simon Weintz.

Give the first round to the Foothills Falcons — and maybe there will be two more editions of the Okotoks boys high school rugby rivalry.

That will be fine with Falcons captain Simon Weintz.

“We have been talking about this game all year — the Comp vs. HTA,” Weintz said. “I’m just glad we were able to pull through, we worked hard for this.

“This was a great day for us.”

The Falcons downed the Holy Trinity Academy Knights 38-17 Thursday in a Big Sky Rugby Union tilt at the Comp.

Foothills opened the scoring early in the first half when they were able to move the ball down and across the field, with it finally ending up in the hands of Foothills fly-half Thomas Isherwood.

Isherwood ultimately ran in from about 10 yards out to make it 7-0.

He wasn’t done yet.

The quick-thinking Isherwood was able to pick-off an HTA lateral and ran untouched for a 67-yard try to double the Falcons lead.

Then a rookie was able to get by one of the best tacklers in the league.

Foothills was able to once again move the ball down the field and finally to rugged rookie Aden Ellis.

The take-no-prisoners Ellis put his head-down and was able to topple Knights sure-tackling workhorse Conor McGee to get in for the score to make it 21-0.

“Aden Ellis is probably the best rookie we had coming out this year,” Weintz said. “I thought that try when he was able to get by Conor McGee — who is really good — that really set the tone for us.”

The hard-working Ellis was unavailable for comment — he and teammate Seth Nelson had to take off to play for the Big Rock Bengals in a midget football game later that evening. The Knights would get on the board thanks to the quick-feet of Easton Martel.

Martel soccer-style kicked the ball from about eight-yards out and then pounced on the ball in the try zone to cut the margin to 21-5.

HTA had to pay the price for their score.

On the Falcons’ ensuing kick-off, the fleet-footed bulldog Payton Price snared the ball like it was an on-side kick. They would close out the first half on the resulting drive with scrappy scrum-half McKinley Roberts taking it in from six yard to give Foothills a 26-5 lead at the half.

The Knights were likely out of the game, but they weren’t down on themselves.

After giving up a try early in the second-half by Price, HTA more than held their own.

They would add a pair of trys, one by Adrian Dookie and then big strong Brenden Fleet muscled his way into cut the lead to 33-17.

Foothills Tyler Going would round out the scoring when he finished off a nice passing play down the line for a short-try to make the final 38-17.

HTA’s Ian MacNeil said while the second half was better, there is still work to be done before Round 2 with HTA.

“I felt coming into the game, we could have executed better than them,” MacNeil said. “At the end of the day possession of the ball wins the game and they had the ball more than us… All of their structure runs through Thomas (Isherwood).

“Tyler (Going) and Simon and all of their big guys were on the ball more than us.”

MacNeil did see improvement in the second half.

“We executed a bit better on offence, caught the ball better we weren’t knocking the ball on as much,” MacNeil said. “We tried to come back but…”

He wasn’t about to use injuries to veterans John Buck and Luc Leslie as an excuse.

“We had a couple of issues with injuries, but we have to play through it,” he said.

The two teams will meet June 1 at 1:30 p.m. in the Tier 1 South Central zone final at the Calgary Rugby Union.

Weintz said the Knights proved themselves with their strong play in the second half, so the Falcons can’t take anything for granted for zones.

“We have to improve on a couple of things and just bring it to them again,” Weintz said. “They (HTA) played really hard in the second half and we have to be ready for them.”

The two friendly rivals may meet again after zones.

Both teams will advance to the Tier 1 provincials June 9 in Edmonton.

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