It’s a good thing the two Okotoks high school boys rugby team have a week off before heading to provincial championships. They will need the rest after the host Foothills Falcons outlasted the Holy Trinity Academy Knights 25-5 in a hard-hitting South Central Tier I zone final May 30. “They had a lot of energy,” said Falcons prop Peter May of the Knights. “I think this game shows how much dedication these two teams put into the game.” The two-teams were tied at 5-5 after the first half. “I was amazed at the start of the game how much it was in the centre of the field,” said Knights coach Jason Krueger. “Back and forth and very physical… I thought the score should have been 0-0 at half.” The two teams exchanged trys in the opening half. The Knights, taking advantage of having the wind at their back, opened the scoring when Caleb Labrenz took it in from about five yards out on a nice feed from Julian Jenkins. “Jenkins tossed it off to me and then I did a 360 and got it in there,” Labrenz said. That would be the last the time the Knights would get on the scoreboard. Foothills would tie the game late in the first half when after Thomas Isherwood got the Falcons out of their territory with a 50-yard run, they would score off a scrum when McKinlay Roberts dished the ball to Isherwood who made a long lateral to Seth Nelson who ran in for the score. The Knights showed life early in the second half when they appeared to have a try but Roberts somehow got his hand between the ball and the ground to prevent the try. Foothills took the lead for good when Ben Tattersall passed off to Isherwood who took in from 10 yards out. Isherwood extended the lead to 12-5 with the convert. The Falcons would virtually put the game away when with the Knights moving the ball down the field, Isherwood jumped up like LeBron going up for a rebound and picked off a pass. He ran approximately 75 yards to make it 19-5 with the convert. Isherwood would add a 25-yard penalty kick and then a rare drop-kick from 12-yards out to make the final 25-5. The drop kick are the last points Isherwood will score at the Comp in his illustrious high school career. “It’s been a few years since I had a drop kick and I wanted to have one in high school,” Isherwood said. Knights co-captain Miguel Villarreal said they can learn from this game. “We were keeping up with them for most of the game, but we let up for about five minutes and that let it get a bunch of the scores — we got to stay in the game for the full time,” he said The Knights will also go to the provincials. The Knights are a no. 8 seed and are pitted against the St. Francis Browns in their first game at 10:40 a.m. on June 8 at the Calgary Rugby Park. The Falcons are a no. 2 seed and play their first game also at 11:30 a.m. on Friday at CRP.
