By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Lightning defeat Raiders to win high school football title

Nov 3, 2018 | 8:34 PM

The Hunting Hills Lightning are high school football league champions for the seventh time in nine years.

The Lightning controlled from start to finish in a 27-8 win over the Lindsay Thurber Raiders Saturday night at Great Chief Park.

Hunting Hills opened the scoring midway through the opening quarter on a 16-yard field goal by Carson Gurski.

Dolan Hills expanded the Lightning to 10-0 with 5:52 in quarter two with a 52-yard touchdown scamper, part of a big night for the all-star veteran.

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“He’s one of the best players in the province. We knew he was already one of the best linebackers, team Alberta last summer. We thought he was not necessarily going to play running back,” said Lightning head coach Kyle Sedgewick.

“A couple guys weren’t around anymore, so he was going to have to carry the load. He got injured for a couple games which allowed us to find Joe Hunt, who I thought ran well. Dolan had the desire. He’s been around. There’s a lot of guys that it’s their second or third time in this game and how to prepare for it and they showed that.”

Lightning quarterback Haidan Brown threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Nathen Feurbringer with three seconds left in the quarter as Hunting Hills took a 17-0 lead to the half.

Will Moir, who missed Thurber’s win last week over Lacombe due to illness, returned the second half kickoff 93 yards to the Hunting Hills 10-yard line. But the Hunting Hills defence denied the Raiders on a third down gamble from the one-yard line.

The Lightning expanded their lead to 20-0 on their ensuing drive on a 28-yard field goal by Gurski with three minutes left in the third quarter.

Lindsay Thurber scored their first points of the game with 1:34 left in the quarter as Josh Campbell found Alex Pennycook for a 15-yard touchdown pass to make it a 20-7 game.

The Raiders added a single point on a missed field goal try by Martin Leroy to make it 20-8 with 7:53 left to play.

But the Lightning put this one out of reach with 5:28 left to play as Dolan Hills scampered 28 yards for his second touchdown of the game.

“I’m super proud of our guys. It sucks, coming into this game, obviously, we’d love to win a championship. We work towards it,” said Raiders head coach Aaron Sheppard.

“We tried here. We just started out too slow. You could tell by experience. They worked real hard and they are always well-coached. I told the kids, you go to championship games, you can’t give gimmies.”

Sedgewick gave props following the game to Ethan McLean, Chase Lloyd, Shane McCutcheon and Keiran Ible – veteran players who are out of the Hunting Hills lineup due to injury.

Both teams will play in provincials next Saturday, Nov. 10 at Great Chief Park. Thurber plays the Grande Prairie Warriors in Tier 1 action (1:30 p.m.) and Hunting Hills takes on the Robert Thirsk Comets (4 p.m.).

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Next weekend, the H.J. Cody Lakers will host Holy Rosary in Tier 3 provincials play at MEGlobal Athletic Park (Sat. Nov. 10, 1:30 p.m.) while Stettler visits Ardrossan in Tier 4 play.

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In bantam league playoffs, the Sylvan Lake Lions upset the Notre Dame Cougars 20-6 in the Tier 2 final at Great Chief Park. The Lacombe Raiders defeated the Ponoka Broncs 25-8 in the Tier 3 final at MEGlobal Athletic Park. Lacombe will host Lethbridge in Tier 3 play at 11 a.m. at MEGlobal Athletic Park. Sylvan Lake will host a team from Edmonton at Great Chief Park in Tier 2 play at 11 a.m.

In the pee wee league final, the Lacombe Explosion blanked the Red Deer Hornets 40-0. Lacombe will host Lloydminster in the provincial final next Saturday (4 p.m. at MEGlobal Athletic Park).