By Troy Gillard (Twitter: @Troy_Gillard)

Thurber advances to high school football final

Oct 26, 2018 | 7:12 PM

The Lacombe Rams gave the Lindsay Thurber Raiders everything they had Friday night at Great Chief Park. But in the end, the higher-ranked Raiders prevailed 20-10 in the high school football city division semifinals.

With the win, the Raiders move on to the league final for the first time since 2014.

“That was a barn burner. That was one of our hardest games all year, by far,” Raiders head Coach Aaron Shepherd admitted. “The Lacombe guys came to play, man. They are well coached and wanted it more than us in the first half, honestly. We were just struggling to get things going.”

Lindsay Thurber started the game on offence, but Lacombe opened the scoring when Richard Jans picked up a fumble by Raiders quarterback Josh Campbell and returned it 40 yards for a Rams touchdown.

Raiders kicker Martin Leroy booted a 31-yard field goal on the final play on the opening quarter and took at 10-7 lead in the second when Campbell ran one in from three yards out.

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Simon Gray kicked a 32-yard field goal for Lacombe on the final play of the half to make it a 10-10 game.

Shepherd felt his team was fortunate to make it to half-time not trailing.

“That combination of not performing and executing and them coming out (hard) was not good for us.”

Thurber was poised to take the lead in the third quarter when they drove the ball inside the Rams five-yard line. On third down, the Raiders went with a pass to the left side only to have the Rams stuff the receiver at the one-yard. The game remained tied heading into the final quarter.

The Raiders eventually pulled ahead 13-0 with 6:01 left in the fourth quarter when Leroy drilled a 27-yard field goal.

After the Rams came up short on a third down gamble, Kaidyn Puttick sealed the win for Thurber with a 67-yard touchdown scamper on the next play with 1:14 remaining.

“I’m just super proud of the kids. I came back to coach because we had an o-fer year where we had no wins. I’m a Raider through and through,” Shepherd said. “Last year was a very hard time for them. So as a crew, I’m just very proud because it’s hard to through that kind of a rebuild. I don’t ever want to go through it again.”

Lacombe head coach Brian Ross was also proud of the way his team battled against a tough Raiders squad, especially early in the game.

“We held a very offensive Lindsay Thurber team to not very much for three quarters of a game,” Ross noted. “I think for us, that’s a better result than perhaps a lot of people thought was going to happen.”

Thurber will play in the city final next Saturday, Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. at Great Chief Park vs. Hunting Hills.