Submitted by Sturgeon Spirits Head Coach Chad Hill
The Sturgeon Spirits have reached the Semi-finals in both senior and junior varsity high school football.
Last Tuesday night (October 15th), the Junior Spirits closed out the regular season with a 70-0 drubbing of the O’Leary Jr. Spartans at Johnny Bright Park in Edmonton. The Spirits relied on a ground-heavy attack in the first half as wind howled and rain fell. Grade 11 running back, Merrick Ouellette rushed for the first three majors of the game and Riley Brown added 3 touchdowns of his own. Brown rushed for a 24 yard score, caught a 4-yard touchdown from Quarterback, Isaac Lorenzin, and also recovered a fumble for a defensive touchdown in the Spartan endzone. Zac Granger, Paul Colcy and Gage St-Louis will also contribute with touchdowns and the defense capitalized by forcing six Spartan turn-overs. Defensiveback, Nash Zubiak led the way for Sturgeon defensively with seven solo tackles.
The Junior Spirits (3-1) will square off against the Beaumont Junior Bandits (2-2) on Wednesday, October 23rd. Kick-off is 7:30 pm. The winner will advance to the Metro Edmonton Athletics Division 3 Junior championship on October 29th. 2024 marks the first season that Sturgeon Composite High School has fielded a junior football team.
On Thursday evening (October 17th), the Sturgeon Spirits advanced to the Metro Edmonton Athletics Miles Division semi-final with a resounding 35-0 defeat of the Scona Lords. Sturgeon, coming off their first loss of the season, started strong as MVP candidate, Tanner McBride rushed 37 yards for a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. McBride would strike again as he blocked a 35-yard Scona field goal attempt and scooped up the bouncing ball to spring 75 yards to paydirt. Sturgeon would hold the 14-0 lead until midway through the second quarter when Quarterback Steele Doronski would hit a streaking Spencer Demerais for a beautiful 30-yard touchdown strike. Doronski would cap off a long Sturgeon drive with a one-yard plunge across the goal line. The score was set up by a terrific catch by grade 12 two-way threat, Julien Ouellette. Ouellette would make a back shoulder catch and tap both feet down while he twisted to reach the goal line. The Jesse Heinen convert put the Spirits up 28-0 heading into the locker room.
The 2nd half would prove to be a defensive battle. Both defenses held steady in the 3rd quarter. Linebacker James Morrison and the feisty Julien Ouellette led the defensive effort with eight primary tackles respectively. The defense would then put numbers on the scoreboard in the 4th quarter. Rookie defensiveback, Lucas Brown snatched an errant Scona pass and skittered 40 yards for the major. It was the third interception of the game for the secondary as grade 11 standouts Zac Brown and Colton Konanz had earlier interceptions.
The Spirits will now prepare to face the defensing Miles Conference champion, Bellerose Bulldogs. Both teams have identical 6-1 overall records as both suffered defeats at the hands of the first-place Beaumont Bandits. The Semi-final is a rematch of the 2023 Miles Championship game in which Bellerose won in a lopsided game. The rematch is scheduled for Friday night at Foote Field in Edmonton. Kick-off is at 7:30 pm. The winner will advance to the championship scheduled for Saturday, November 2nd, at Commonwealth Stadium.
