The Bonnyville Bandits started the playoffs with a shutout, easily taking the St. Paul Bengals with a score of 55-0 this past Saturday.
Sitting in third place going into the game, the Bandits played strong offensively, adjusting their plays for the wind and working on their running game.
Despite a solid effort, the sixth-place Bengals were unable to gain much ground, finishing out the first quarter down 15-0.
The Bandits held on to the ball for the rest of the game, though the Bengals rallied and nearly managed to run one in on the last play of the game, a move that even had a few Bonnyville fans cheering for them.
After the game, coach Dan Jubinville said that his team's game was, “steller,” though he added, “wish it wasn't as windy, we could have gotten a little more of our passing game going, but it gave us a chance to work on our running game, which needed some work.”
Either way, he said, “The boys played hard, you can't ask for any more than that.”
Moving into the next round of the Wheatland Bantam Football League playoffs will see the Bandits face off against the Cold Lake Royals.
The Bandits have a history with the Royals this season, Jubinville added, saying, “We've been doing really well. If you look at the game we played against Cold Lake, we played well the whole way through. One bad snap cost us the game, and a couple other penalties cost us the game there. We'll just do our best.”
The main thing, he said, in the week leading up to next Saturday's game, “we're just going to have to heal up because we're going into a really hard game. We've got to be healthy for the next game, so the thing is to rest the boys up.”
The next game will be Saturday at 1 p.m. in Cold Lake.
The Bonnyville Voyageurs traveled to Wainwright for the first round of the Wheatland Football League's Tier I playoffs, but ran into a defensively poised Commandos squad and fell by a score of 8-0.
It was a tough, defensive battle for a determined Voyageurs squad.
The loss drops the Voyageurs to Tier II for round two of the playoffs, in which they will face the Westlock Thunderbirds.
The game goes at 1 p.m. this Saturday in Westlock.
Bonnyville beat Westlock 30-0 in an exhibition game earlier this season.
