The Stettler Wildcats finished the season with their winning streak intact in a nail-biter of a game on Oct. 13.
Stettler opened scoring against the HJ Cody Lakers early in the first quarter. Eleven seconds into the quarter, to be precise, which was then followed up with the conversion point giving the Wildcats and early 7 to 0 lead.
“Then we kinda fell asleep,” said head coach Norbert Baharally.
By the end of the first quarter, the Lakers had scored two touchdowns and conversions, launching the Lakers past the Wildcats with a score of 14-7.
The opening of the second quarter wasn’t much better for the Wildcats, losing another touchdown to the Lakers, resulting in a score of 21-7.
Towards the later-part of the second-quarter, the Wildcats gained a spark of life in a play made by Kyle Dennis which netted the team a touchdown and a conversion, making the score 21-14 Lakers.
The Lakers struck back early in the second half, though didn’t manage to capitalize on a conversion attempt resulting in a score of 27-14.
Wildcat Ryan Muchaita ran in a touchdown a short time later, keeping the game close. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they were unable to capitalize on the conversion attempt either, leaving the Wildcats still trailing with a score of 27-20 for the Lakers.
Both offence and defence came alive for Stettler in the fourth quarter. With 6:22 left in the game Dennis made another big play with a touchdown. Callum Levers made the conversion kick and the game was tied at 27 points aside.
Dennis made another big play, scoring another touchdown with 41 seconds left in the game. Levers again made the conversion, which finally put the Wildcats in the driver’s seat for rest of the short time remaining of play, with a score of 34-27.
The win kept the Wildcats undefeated for the regular season, placing them first in their league and sending the team to semi-finals on the last weekend of October.
Should the team be successful at the semi-finals, they will then host the league finals weekend November 4 and 5.