The W.H. Croxford Cavaliers football team is still undefeated with just one regular-season game left in its 2022 schedule, after beating the Bert Church Chargers 35-7 on Oct. 7.
According to Cavaliers head coach Josiah Donahue, the inter-city rivalry game between the two Airdrie schools was closer than the final score board indicated, and it took an improved effort by Croxford's players in the final five minutes to come out with the win.
“We were up 12-7 with about five minutes left in the game, and we just kind of took over from there,” Donahue said.
“Those last five minutes kind of sealed the deal. We didn’t have our heads down. We came out pretty flat in the first half and in the second half, we had to ramp it up. We came together as a team to figure it out.”
Croxford, who is currently ranked second in the province among Alberta's Tier II high-school football teams at the moment, came into the pre-Thanksgiving tilt after a two-week bye. Donahue acknowledged the break from competitive action was both a blessing and a curse for the Cavaliers, who are in the midst of their best-ever season since joining the RVSA in 2015.
“We had a bye week the week before and were supposed to play Ernest Manning [in an exhibition], but had to cancel due to a ref shortage,” he explained.
“We’ve been practicing, but that [two-week break] was something new for our team. A bye week, in premise, is awesome. You get rested and recuperated. But sometimes when you’re out of the [game week mentality], sometimes it takes a while to get back into gear.”
The loss keeps Bert Church in a tie for fourth place in the RVSA with the Chestermere Lakers. Both teams have 2-3 records, though the Lakers lead based on the two teams' head-to-head record.
Turkey Bowl
The annual football game between Bert Church and Croxford is known as the Turkey Bowl, as it is typically scheduled right before the Thanksgiving weekend.
In addition to the on-field competition, the game includes some friendly off-the-field competition as well, as the fans of each team take part in a contest to see who can 'Cram the Ram' with more food donations for the Airdrie Food Bank.
Afterwards, the head coach of the team that raises fewer donations for the food bank has to don the opposing team's jersey for a full school day. In 2021, Donahue, who is a teacher at Croxford, said he was the coach who lost that bet.
The Cavs head coach said the yearly initiative is creating a great lasting legacy among Bert Church's and Croxford's high-school football teams.
“We have two great fan bases at the schools who do want to help the community and build a lasting legacy, not only for football but also to showcase that school ‘is’ community,” he said. “The fact we have two schools working together like that is awesome. I’ll give kudos to Mr. [Steve] Larsen from Bert Church for coming up with the idea, and then the Bert Church Booster Club had the helm for it. And we’ll obviously do anything we can to help.”
The Cavaliers, now sporting a 5-0 record in the Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) and 6-0 overall, will wrap up the regular season on Oct. 14 with a top-of-the-table clash against the also-unbeaten Cochrane Cobras. That match-up will determine who finishes first in the RVSA.
“Cochrane is a big team. They’ve been the best in the province for years,” Donahue said. “For us, they’re the top dogs and we want to come in and give them a fight. Hopefully it goes our way, but for us, this is a big moment for our program.”
That game will take place at Bow Valley High School in Cochrane starting at 7 p.m.
Mustangs beat Lakers
On Oct. 6, the George McDougall Mustangs won their second consecutive game, shutting out the Chestermere Lakers 38-0 to improve their divisional record to 3-2 and move up to third place in the RVSA standings.
George McDougall will look to maintain the positive momentum this Friday, when they take on Bert Church in the annual rivalry game known as the Airdrie Bowl. The inter-city rivalry game, which gets underway at 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 14 at Ed Eggerer Athletic Park, will be the two teams' final regular-season game in the RVSA schedule before playoffs get underway the following week.
