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Bantam Titans battle to silver medal in league championship

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The Bantam Titans left it all on the field on Saturday afternoon, November 4, as they battled for the league championship with the Olds Bulldogs.
It was a battle in the making all season. Both teams were undefeated through the regular season and playoffs and were destined to meet on the DVSS Field.
The teams were both supported well by fans and were in a duel. The Titans did hold a 14-12 lead in the second quarter, but by halftime, they were down 29-14. Olds extended that lead in the third quarter to 44-14, but the Titans never relented and scored two touchdowns by the early fourth quarter, making the score 44-28. Olds quickly came back and went up 53-28, but the Titans marched the ball down the field to score again, making it 53-34. That was as close as they could get as the Olds put it in once more to end the game with a score of 58-34.
“I am very proud of how they finished, they never gave up and stuck with it,” said Coach Brad Iverson. “We thought maybe we would have a chance, but it was very hard to stop that quarterback they have. We knew they were good and would put up some points, but it is still a very successful year.”
In fact, it was an incredible season for the program. The Bantam Titans marched through the regular season handing teams lop-sided defeats. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the chance to size up some of the top competitors like Olds until the very end. He is proud of the effort of the players.
“I have coached some of those players in the first year that I came to Drumheller. So I coached them for four years. And quite a few of them for three years. I have been very proud to watch their growth from Peewee right on up, and their football careers are just starting, they are going to be forces in this program.”
The future looks bright for the team. Iverson says he has a lot of players moving up to the next level, but will still have about a dozen players that will fill key roles in the upcoming season, as well as players moving up from Peewee.


Senior Titans host first round of playoffs

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The Senior Titans are into the provincial playoffs as they get ready to face the Willow Creek Cobras in the south semi-final.
This comes after securing the top spot in the south and home-field advantage for the playoffs by defeating Canmore 31-0 in Cochrane.
“We stuck to our game plan and executed it well,” said head coach Ken Fournier. “We felt like we controlled the ball for most of the first half, we distributed the ball around and made sure we were doing some simple things right. A couple of things we have been sloppy on in the last few weeks we worked on so that was nice. There is still work to be done, but it was a good team effort.”
The Titans have secured the top spot in the province at the Tier IV level with a perfect 8-0 league record. Willow Creek of Claresholm is a perennially strong team and is ranked 5th after falling to W.R. Myers of Taber. The Titans will meet the Cobras on their own field this Saturday, November 11 at 1 p.m. The winner of this game will play the winner of Canmore and Taber in the South Final.
In the north end of the draw, the number two St. Paul Lions (6-2) have a bye, while the number 10 Wainwright Commandos (0-7) take on the number 3 Sexsmith Sabres.
The Alberta Bowl provincial championship is in Red Deer on Friday, November 24.

Dragons improve record

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The Dragons picked up four of a possible six points last week as they split their time between home and away.
It was the biggest crowd so far this season on Tuesday, October 24, when area students crowded into the Drumheller Memorial Arena for Hockey Hooky Day. 1,210 fans watched the Dragons take on the Olds Grizzlys.
The Dragons started out strong and Jacob Goudreau opened the scoring at the midway point of the first period. This was followed up by Connor Poffenroth seven minutes later on the powerplay. Olds added one at the end of the first period, as the Dragons led 2-1 after one.
Kai Matthew scored on the powerplay in the second and Easton Adrian did the same in the third period as the Dragons carried a 4-1 win.
Whatever energy the Dragons had on Tuesday afternoon had disappeared by Thursday night, October 26 as the Dragons hosted the Okotoks Oilers. The Dragons were outshot 21-2 in the first period alone and by then were already trailing by four goals. Coy Pighin added one early in the second, but Okotoks added three more to make it 7-1 after two periods. Adam Raesler scored his 11th of the season early in the third period, but that was as much offence as the Dragons could come up with, falling 7-2.
On Friday, October 27, the Dragons regrouped on a road trip to take on the Sherwood Park Crusaders. Sherwood Park scored first, but Aiden LaRose followed it up to tie the game. The Crusaders connected against lead 2-1 after one. Raesler got hot in the second period scoring two and taking the lead 3-2. The third period saw a performance from Goudreau as he scored two. Jordan Luk added one with 49 seconds left, as the Dragons went on to a 6-2 win.
The Dragons are not back on the ice until this Friday, November 3, when they take on the Spruce Grove Saints. On Saturday they host the Crusaders.


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