Bonnyville Bandits Advance to League Final With 64-22 Win

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The Bonnyville Bandits remain undefeated and will advance to the league final against the St. Paul Bengals after a 64-22 against the Wainwright Warhawks.

There was one first in the semi-final tilt. The Warhawks scored a pick-6 that led to Bonnyville trailing for the first time all season.

“Wainwright came to play. They have some excellent players, they just don’t have enough of them. We wore them down a bit,” said coach Mickey Fagnan.

“This is the first time all year that they were actually behind, so it was good for the kids to feel a little bit of pressure, but we responded. We’re such a deep team and we have a lot of kids who really handle the ball well,” he said.

“The performance level has always been excellent. You know these kids are taught from minute one that we just don’t put up with half an effort. We got to work on tackling, that’s one of the things, we aren’t tackling live in practice, then we forget how to tackle in game. But give Wainwright some credit they came out slugging.”

The Bandits roster is near double the Warhawks, although it could be on the rise.

Warhawks coach Zak McLachlan said that the program is going well and there are talks of a field upgrade project in Wainwright.

“I thought they played great. We came out firing right off the hop,” said McLachlan.

“That pick-6 was huge…that was the first time they’ve trailed so far this year.”

For the second straight year, the Bandits are undefeated heading into the final against the St. Paul Bengals, who are also the defending Tier 3 Bantam Provincial champs.

They’ll look to avenge that close 13-7 overtime loss from last season.

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The Bonnyville Renegades beat the Cold Lake Rams 27-14 and will also advance to their league final against Lloydminster.