By Sheldon Spackman

Bucs crushed by Monarchs in AFL final

Aug 26, 2018 | 11:06 AM

The Central Alberta Buccaneers had their season come to a crashing end Saturday in Fort McMurray with a 65-7 loss to the Monarchs in the Alberta Football League (AFL) final.

The Monarchs got off to a quick start on the Bucs, scoring 29 points in the first quarter alone before making it 45-0 at halftime.

The Bucs broke the goose egg with a touchdown in the third quarter to make it 45-7. But Fort McMurray added to their total in the final frame to make it a 65-7 final.

Buccaneers head coach Fred Knip says the Monarchs took control of the game early.

“We had some poor field position and then we had a couple of plays that just didn’t go well,” he laments. “They took advantage of a couple of mistakes and they capitalized on it right away. Before we knew it, it was four touchdowns later and the first quarter was over.”

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Knip says the rest of the game was spent trying to get out of that hole they dug for themselves.

“In our league we have what’s called straight time, it’s called a mercy rule,” he explains. “If you’re down by more than 35, they keep the clock running, so we had a double whammy after halftime trying to get back. It was very difficult.”

Knip admits it was tough for the team to keep its spirits up being down by so much but adds he’s proud of the way the guys kept battling despite the lopsided score.

“We had a lot of injuries, we had three guys that went down during the game,” says Knip. “Plus, of course, we had our all-star quarterback (Brandon Leyh) that wasn’t there, our second quarterback wasn’t there (Judah Knip), we did well with Jarrett Burzuk who got us through the semi-finals but it was a little difficult with the number of injuries that we had. There were probably five or six players that we were missing which didn’t help our confidence.”

Nonetheless, Knip says there are some positives the Bucs can take away from Saturday night’s game.

“Well we’re family,” he explains. “The boys played together, we played til the end. There’s a core group of guys there that wanted to keep playing and we did keep playing and what I liked about last night is that we didn’t give up, we went right down to the end.”

Knip says that’s a big part of the culture the team is trying to establish and maintain for years to come.

“We work inside the community within central Alberta,” adds Knip. “Whether it’s blood donor, whether its food bank drive or helping the Gord Bamford people. The bus ride home will probably be a little quiet but at the same time, we stuck together through thick and thin and today just happens to be a little bit thin.”

Looking ahead to the 2019 season, Knip says he’s excited about what the Buccaneers can build on following this season’s success.

“I’m happy that we gelled together,” states Knip. “It took a little more work this year than maybe the year before but we had a lot of guys that came in from other teams that folded. It was just working together, there’s no room for individualism, there’s no ‘I’ in team and team is together, everyone achieves more. That’s what we’re trying to do, I was happy with that this year.”

Having said that, Knip says he anticipates the Bucs to be strong for the next several seasons.

“We’re going to have a great team next year as well, and the year after that and the year after that,” he exclaims. “It’s building a culture, building a community, building a team of brothers. That’s what we’ve got going here.”  

The Monarchs will host the Greater Toronto Area All-Stars in the national championship game on Sept. 15.