The Foothills Peewee Eagles are Tier II provincial champions for the fourth time.
Foothills rode a dominant defence and explosive offence to a 40-0 shutout over the Sherwood Park Rams to claim the Football Alberta Peewee Tier II provincial title on a chilly Nov. 9 at Shouldice Park.
"They're a great group of kids," said Peewee Eagles head coach Lance Kelly. "I tell parents all the time when I'm recruiting and out talking to parents that if you want your kid to be connected to somebody who's of good character, as a parent we all want our kids hanging out with good kids, this is the group.
"They're very unselfish, they're all doing things for each other. That's what I'll remember about this group."
Foothills' defence allowed just one first down to the Rams and held them to negative total yardage in a stifling performance.
"We really liked the matchup defensively," Kelly said. "They're bigger. Edmonton plays under different rules, they have bigger fullbacks and runningbacks, they don't have a weight limit on carrying the ball and we do. We have weight restrictions on who can be at tailback, receiver or quarterback so we generally have smaller kids in those positions.
"We were a little bit concerned with some of the size of their guys, but obviously that wasn't an issue for us."
The coach tipped his hat to the collective trust the defensive players have in one another.
"They know their teammates are going to be beside them so it frees them up to be a little bit more aggressive," Kelly said. "Because they know the guy next to them is going to do the job.
"We decided early we would live or die with being aggressive and it just worked. And once that starts rolling in your favour it just doesn't stop."
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles put together 354 yards rushing and 462 total yards in the contest.
"They stopped us in the middle, they really did," Kelly said. "They must have set that as an agenda for the day... they definitely put a lot of pressure on us from the inside.
"We're an explosive team, we go two yards, two yards, touchdown. If we get it outside our quarterback is explosive, he's quick, our other backs are explosive. We ended up throwing the ball around."
Quarterback Emerson Liepert opened the scoring on a 43-yard touchdown run, Remy Pilon scored a major on an 8-yard reception and Liepert added a 28-yard scamper to the end-zone to make it a 20-0 lead at the half.
In the second half, Lincoln Stewart scored on a goal-line touchdown run while Seth Poelzer ran in from 27 yards out in the fourth quarter.
Middle linebacker Avery Laliberte punctuated the defensive effort with a fumble return touchdown to complete the 40 point scoreline.
The Eagles advanced to the provincial championship by virtue of Tier II playoff victories over the Rebels and Calgary Stampeders, the latter in the city championship, after posting a 6-2 record in the regular season.
For Kelly and the coaching staff it was always more about the journey than the destination.
"It was an honour to coach the team this year, it's a great organization with a focus in the right place," Kelly said. "It's great to have the wins and we're on the trophy four or five times and we've been to the provincial five or six times and those are all great things, but we're about the kids. Everyone's focus is just about the kids having fun.
"What we'll take away is the kids had a good time and they had a great experience playing football."
The 2019 Peewee Eagles roster: Apollo Fenn, Asher Nelson, Ashton Power, Austin Kroeker, Avery Watterston, Avery Laliberte, Ben Haden, Carter Stewart, Carter Robertson, Coen Bell, Colton Friesen, Connor Hogan, Elliott Kaun, Emerson Liepert, Ethan Moorman, Evan Morey, Gavin Speers, Grayson Raknerud, Henry Fairbanks, Hunter Charlet, Jackson Calder, Jordan Seinen, Kayden Hambler, Levi Hemsworth, Lincoln Stewart, Oaklee Janik, Quinn Yarmoloy, Reese Jensen, Remy Pilon, Seth Poelzer, Sidanee Bowers, Toryn Hayward, Wyatt Koopman, Xavier Burley.
