Adnesse Pannenbecker (#80) carries the ball for the Lacombe Composite Rams this season in a game against the Notre Dame Cougars. (Lorisa Schlecht)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

big stakes

Lacombe Rams hoping to continue history-making season with win Saturday

Nov 19, 2021 | 3:25 PM

The Alberta Bowl goes Nov. 26-27 at Commonwealth Stadium, and could feature four teams from central Alberta.

The Tier II Lacombe Composite Rams want to be there, but aren’t looking past their South Final this Saturday.

The Rams (5-2) will face Football Alberta’s defending Tier II champs, Holy Trinity Academy (6-3-1) from Okotoks, with the winner going to the season’s final game a week later.

Head coach Brian Ross has been involved in the game for 40 years, and has coached the team from Lacombe for about half that.

Results-wise, this is the best team he’s ever had, Ross says. The City championship they won earlier this month was the first title the’ve earned in three decades, after making the 1991 Tier II championship and losing to Cardston 51-7.

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The Lacombe Rams celebrated after beating Lindsay Thurber for the City title on Nov. 5. (Supplied)

“We’ve never even sniffed this level of provincials in my time here, so it’s very fulfilling for me — and for the kids, this is as exciting as it gets. Coming through COVID, we were worried we wouldn’t get a full season in, let alone extra games at the end,” says Ross.

“The kids have worked exceedingly hard to pick up all the concepts we’ve thrown at them, meantime studying as much film as they can. They’re a nice bunch of dudes and have been good kids to coach.”

The 9th-ranked Rams beat Tier I’s Lindsay Thurber for the City championship on Nov. 5, then beat Our Lady of the Rockies 34-14 on Nov. 13 to advance to the Tier II South Final.

Holy Trinity, the 4th-ranked team, won the division title two years ago, and there was no winner crowned in 2020. They beat the Medicine Hat Hawks 35-18 to qualify for the final.

Awaiting one of those two is the #3 Leduc Tigers and #1 St. Joseph Celtics, who also play Saturday in the North Final.

The Rams’ strength is its defense, says Ross, also the offensive coordinator.

“What we do in terms of success is built around the defense, and our goal is to score just enough points to get us over the hump. With Holy Trinity, they’re a bigger school, and as far as Tier II, we’re always one of, if not the smallest schools in that division,” he says.

“I think we’re going to be okay, but we do have two very different styles of football. They’re very much a speed and finesse team, while we’re very much, for lack of a better phrase, a knock you on your butt kind of squad.”

Saturday’s game goes at 11 a.m. from Hellard Field at Shouldice Park in Calgary.

Meantime, the Lindsay Thurber Raiders will play in the Tier I North Final on Saturday at 2:30 from the Jasper Place Bowl in Edmonton. The 10th-ranked Raiders (3-4) face the #9 Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds (4-4) out of Edmonton. Thurber beat Grande Prairie 49-0 a week ago to advance.

The winner of the Raiders vs. Thunderbirds will face the winner of the Tier I South Final, either the #5 Raymond Comets or #6 L.C.I. Rams, also at Commonwealth Stadium next Saturday.

In Tier IV action, the #2 Drumheller Titans (7-3) face the #5 W.R. Myers Rebels (3-4) on Saturday. A win would send them to the Alberta Bowl next Saturday against either Ardrossan or Sexsmith.

In 6-man competition, the #3 Rimbey Spartans (6-1) take on the #2 Millwoods Christian Royals (6-0) on Saturday. A victory would earn them an Alberta Bowl berth next Friday against either Holy Redeemer or J.C. Charyk.