The Renegades are League Champs

The Bonnyville Peewee Renegades are the 2015 Lloyd Minor Football League Champions after taking the Lloydminster Colts 18-12 on Sunday. Head coach Kevin Sartain says the squad never stopped working and earned the win, and the title of League Champions for the second year in a row.

“We lead the whole game, right from the word go!” Sartain explains it wasn’t a one-sided match, “at one point it was 18-6 and they were able to break away and get a 50 yard run. It was 18-12 and our defense came up huge, it came down right to the wire. We got the ball back with 3 minutes left.”

Sartain says he’s proud of all the players on his team, but there was one kid really shined when the squad needed him, Duncan Critch. “on a crucial play, Duncan Critch carried half the Colts team on his back. An eleven year old kid- you’ve never seen anything like it- he just decided we were not losing that game. He had five kids on him and he got that first down.”

“The whole team rallied behind Duncan, it was unreal,” Sartain boast about the team that is made up of eleven and twelve year olds, with a few under elevens. “They just gutted it out!”

“There was about a minute left in the game, we’re up 18-12,” Sartain recalls, “the Colts take a timeout to stop the clock, but there’s three downs left. There’s nothing they could do. I ran out on the field to talk to my boys, reassure them. My whole offense is crying, I didn’t know what was going on. I’m looking around for someone who’s hurt, and they cry out, ‘we’re gonna win’!”

It’s moments like that, that are the reason Sartain coaches, “I told them, ‘everybody calm down, let’s run out the clock and win. We’ll be champions again, just don’t fumble it.” The team was able to run out the clock and take a knee to win to championship.

With the win in Lloyd, the Renegades will host the Provincial Championships Saturday at Walsh Field versus Red Deer Steelers at 1:00 pm.