The Foothills Eagles saw their provincial dreams dashed one game shy of the final. Powered by a powerful ground game the Medicine Hat Hawks overpowered the Eagles to the tune of 41-6 in the Football Alberta Bantam Tier II provincial semifinal Saturday at Encana Field. “Their runningback (Aayden Callan) was the most difficult component,” said Eagles head coach Kynan Larson. “Up-front on the defence, what you do with your line and what you do with your gap assignments and we tried our best. “We moved a linebacker, put more people in the tackle box and he was really hard to stop. And once you start stacking your box then you’re open to the pass.” Foothills did well to limit the damage in the opening half with three turnovers forced by the defence on Callan and a Hawks offensive unit with a huge size advantage. The Hawks opened the scoring on a quarterback sneak on the goal line, but the Eagles bounced back with a quick response on offence. Brendan Diebel forced and recovered a fumble on Callan and the Eagles made good on the change in fortune. Quarterback Luke Gutek found Keighan Liepert all alone in the secondary and the fleet-footed slotback sprinted into the end-zone for the 65-yard major. “We had some recoveries and that was good,” Larson said. “Field position was difficult today as well, all in all it was a difficult game for us.” The Hawks jumped back into poll position with Brody Fink finding a teammate through the air and fullback Dylan Callan bulldozing into the end-zone on a reverse run. Foothills looked poised to answer the bell right before halftime after Gutek connected with brother Jack for a 35-yard catch, leading to a trip to the end-zone. Runningback Gabriel Marquardt was brought down just inches shy of a first-down as the Hawks held strong to go into the break with a 21-6 advantage. “The running quarterback helped us out, some of the passes were opening up the field as well, we had some decent runs,” the coach added. “I think they did well and they were doing well against a difficult team.” Medicine Hat added to its lead with a perfectly executed fake field goal pass into the end-zone followed by a pair of running touchdowns in a dominant second half. “One thing we did stick to, if you want to call it game-planning, is we played players in their positions. We didn’t have two-way players and that’s something other teams do. We didn’t want to do that, we wanted to make sure kids got to play the positions they’ve been in all year.” It was a bittersweet finish to a strong season for the Eagles program. Foothills, the Tier II Calgary Bantam Football Association champions, played some of its best football down the stretch to book its ticket to the provincial playoff. “We told them we’re proud of them,” Larson said. “It was a successful season. We’re still city champs, as 2018 Eagles you did very, very well and hold your chins up. “There are a lot of sad kids, kids who are ageing out that are going to move on to high school and this was their last game as Eagles, but it was a very successful season.” For more information on Eagles football visit gofa.ca
