It was a cool breezy afternoon with a few fitful flurries falling Saturday at the Regional High School field as the St. Paul Bengals welcomed the Bonnyville Bandits to 'The Jungle.'
The battle of 2–1 teams, was for second place in the league, and the right to host a first round playoff game. The game however wasn't as close as the score suggests with turnovers being the name of the game. The Bengals took the ball away seven times and did not give up any turnovers.
“It was practice, team work, hard work and dedication not magic that made us win,” said Bengals cornerback/wide receiver Sawyer Amos
The game started out fairly even with the Ryan-Fodchuk-led Bengals smashing their way down the field in a 12 play 60-yard drive to go up 6–0 after the first quarter. The Bandits just couldn't get their offence working in the second quarter, but their defence played well. The Bengals took the ball away three times, twice on downs, making the score 12–0 two seconds before the half on another Fodchuk touchdown run.
“We worked very hard, watched film and practised for what we were expecting. Bonnyville didn't have any surprises for us and it was a team win, both the offence and defence played well but we had difficulties on the special teams. We know what we need to work on,” said Bengals head coach Todd Tanasichuk.
The second half started quickly with Bonnyville getting on the board and narrowing the score to 12–7. St. Paul responded by racking up three more touchdowns and taking the ball away four times. The big St. Paul offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage and Ryan McLellan played another solid game at quarterback.
On the defensive side of the ball Connor Balash and Travis McGilvery came up with key interceptions, but the big story was newcomer Hellmon Ndose. Ndose is a recent immigrant from Germany who grew up playing soccer but is adjusting well to football. He, playing defensive end and offensive guard, made key plays including many quarterback hurries, a tackle for a big loss, a sack and a key third down stop that gave the Bengals the ball and ended any momentum the Bandits may have been building.
Bonnyville narrowed the margin with a kickoff return for a touchdown in the late third quarter and a touchdown run against the Bengals backups and rookies in the fourth quarter.
“We know they had some bumps and bruises and some kids playing out of position. We definitely won't be resting on our laurels because they are well coached and will be tougher and better prepared when we face them in the playoffs,” said Tanasichuk.
The Bengals travel to Cold Lake next week for a match-up against the Ravens on the new turf at Tom Varghese Field. The Ravens have had a rough season so far going 1-3 with a victory over Vegreville and losses to Bonnyville, Wainwright and Lloydminster. The biggest issue in Cold Lake is the lack of numbers combined with minor injuries bringing their sideline down to 15 to 16 players.
“We hope they don't have to forfeit. The Ravens forfeited the previous two games against Bonnyville and the Lloydminster Red Dogs. They still played jamboree style exhibition games in both cases, so either way we can get our rookies and reserves a lot of playing time.”
The Wheatland Bantam Football League believes in family first, taking the Thanksgiving weekend off for all teams. The Bengals next game will be at home in the league semifinal hosting the Bonnyville Bandits at Regional Field Saturday Oct. 19 at 1 p.m.
