The HJ Cody Lakers capped off an undefeated season with a league championship.
The Lakers defeated the Stettler Wildcats 30-15 to clinch the title at home on Nov. 2.
The two quarters of the rain-ridden game saw the Lakers came out strong going up 27-7 heading into halftime.
After the half the Lakers were only able to add a field goal to the scoreboard, but they still came out 15 points ahead of the visiting Wildcats.
“When we played them in regular season it was only a 12-10 score, so this was actually an improvement for us,” said Lakers Head Coach Jeremy Braitenback. “We knew they’d give us a good game and we came out strong and it helped a lot obviously in the second half too.”
Braitenback said he gives Stettler a lot of credit for the hard fight they put up in the third and fourth quarters of the game after going down 20 points.
The Lakers’ defence also put in their share of work at the Saturday afternoon game.
“I said going in ‘I think if our defence can hold them to two touchdowns we’ll win this game’ and that’s what happened,” commented Braitenback.
He added a problem for the Lakers in the second half of the game was discipline as the suffered from penalties which resulted in lost yardage on big plays.
The discipline, according to Braitenback, is a fault the Lakers will work on heading into provincials.
The Lakers will face Holy Rosary High School in Llyodminster this upcoming weekend.
Braitenback says both sides of the ball will have to play a better game against Holy Rosary.
“They’re one of the top teams in the province,” said Braitenback. “I think we’re going to have to play like we did in the first half, not the second half.”
The Sylvan Lake Lions also played for a league championship on Nov. 2, but fell short in a 56-20 loss against the Stettler Cougars.
