Staff reporter
After being denied in the final in the previous two seasons, the Rimbey Spartans finally shook the monkey off their backs after defeating the Frank Maddock Warriors in Drayton Valley to capture their first Western Alberta Six-Man Football League championship last Friday.
“We were up 32-0 at the end of the first quarter so then we just played smart from that point on and won 48-8,” said head coach Bill Bramfield. “On offense we had lots of big catches and kept beating them to the outside. We’ve got a quarterback that can run, a good running back and we’ve got a tight end and receiver that can really catch so between all those things, they didn’t really have an answer.”
While the Spartans were running on all cylinders on the offensive side of the ball, including scoring on five of their first six possessions, the defense was getting the job done as well limiting the Warriors to just 50 yards in the first half.
“We were pretty well-prepared and were able to execute,” Bramfield said. “They’ve got some pretty big players, but defensively, we had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do and the guys were able to execute the game plan.”
Calling it a “near flawless effort”, Bramfield said every player on the team saw some game action – including three Grade 9 players – but was quick to add the championship involved many more people than just the players.
“The parents had to give them a lot of encouragement and teachers had to help them out by letting them leave class early and all kinds of things, so anytime you win a victory like this, there’s always people behind the scenes that make it possible.”