The Zone 2 (Big Country) football team, which included players from Rocky View County, had a roller-coaster weekend July 19 to 22, in Grande Prairie at the 2018 Alberta Summer Games. Following three close games, the team took home the bronze medal after beating Zone 4 (Parkland) in a dramatic finish that came down to the wire in overtime. “It was crazy. If you took that last game to Hollywood and said, ‘Make a movie out of this,’ they’d reject it, because it’s too cliché,” said Zone 2 coach Chris Glass. Down 20-6 with five minutes left in the bronze-medal game, Zone 2 battled back to score two touchdowns before the final whistle, sending it into overtime. Zone 4 responded with an immediate TD, according to Glass. But the Parkland team opted to try to score a two-point conversion, which failed. “Their kicker was injured, and they went for two points instead of going for one,” Glass said. “We managed to stop them from getting in the end zone.” Now on offence and down by six, Zone 2 running back Michael Schaan and starting quarterback Danny Skelton of Springbank helped the Big Country O-line bring the ball close to the Parkland end zone. Zone 2 opted for a one-point conversion to try for the win. The team’s players’ and fans’ hearts were in their throats as the kick was initially blocked. But the referee called an offside on the Zone 4 defensive line, giving Zone 2 kicker Loghan Kenyon one more chance to put the ball through the upright. This time, Kenyon was successful, securing the bronze for Zone 2 in the most dramatic way possible. “It was a great feeling,” said QB Skelton, who aims to play for the Springbank Phoenix football team next fall. “We were kind of feeling a bit down, but we never gave up. It was just an amazing feeling to end up winning the game, because we’d worked so hard for it.” Eight players from Cochrane and seven from Springbank were on the 35-man Big Country roster, which also included players from Airdrie, Okotoks, Hanna, Langdon, Drumheller and Strathmore. Glass said Skelton’s performance at quarterback, in particular, played a huge role in Zone 2’s bronze medal. “He became a field general in the last two games,” he said. “He took control of the offence, made sure people were in the right positions, made throws no quarterback has any business throwing and just really came into his own as a starting QB.” In its first game, Zone 2 narrowly edged out Zone 1 (Sunny South) by a score of 29-26. Glass said his team led 29-10 at one point, but he decided to rest some of his starters and shuffle players around as the game wore on. “We kind of allowed them back into the game closer than we’d have liked,” he said. The second game proved harder for Zone 2. Playing against Zone 5 (Black Gold/Yellowhead), the Big Country team fell 19-9. Glass said Big Country came close to overcoming Zone 5 – trailing only 11-9 in the fourth quarter – but Zone 5 managed to score another TD late in the game to pull away with the win. “We matched up really well with them – we had a really good game plan and we executed it, for the most part, but just came up a little short,” he said. “We could have easily been playing in the gold-medal game with the effort the kids put in. “It was a heck of a game.” Glass said despite losing in the semi-final, the Zone 2 team was content to win the bronze in such a dramatic fashion. “It was a pretty spectacular way to finish out an excellent weekend of football,” he said. “I’m investing in heart medication.”
