The Foothills Eagles 6-a-side girls are beginning to take flight at the right time of the season.
Foothills put forth its best result in its regular season finale in the U18 Female Tackle Football League with a narrow 34-31 defeat to the Airdrie Raiders on June 4 at Shouldice Park to build on entering the playoffs.
“I’m really proud of the girls and it was a fight today for sure,” said Eagles head coach Lance Kelly. “We were down two or three of our veterans and key players, starting runningback, two of our linebackers weren’t here, that made a big difference, but they filled in well and fought hard.”
The Eagles scratched back from a 26-12 deficit at the half to make a game of it in the second half.
Quarterback Josie Smith called her own number for a 70-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half, her third major of the game, to cue the comeback.
Alyssa Monaghan added a short yardage touchdown on the heels of a big run from teammate Jaidyn Hensel to get them in the red-zone.
In the fourth-quarter, wide receiver Sapphire Friesen got the Eagles out of tough field position with a showstopping 105-yard run out of the backfield into the end zone to cut the Raiders’ lead to three.
Airdrie’s defence stood tall on the final Foothills drive, holding the Eagles to a turnover on downs to close out the contest.
Sunday’s three-point defeat was by far Foothills’ closest margin of the season.
The Eagles opened the regular season with a 65-40 loss to the Calgary Wildcats and were edged out on the road last week by a 20-point margin in Red Deer.
“There was lots of good things and I think, for the most part, we’re really starting to gel as a unit,” Kelly said. “We saw a lot more camaraderie on the sidelines today, a lot more talking to each other, picking each other up and we saw a lot of girls working through things and the bumps and bruises.
“Earlier in the year we joked there was a battle for the bench and now it seems like a battle to stay in the game and trying to show they’ve got some toughness.”
The 6-a-side league is primarily for the 14-17 age group with junior-aged players also seeing game action.
Foothills’ junior talent was on display on Sunday with a number of standout performances against older opposition with linebacker Taylor Jackson making a plethora of open field tackles.
“She was really quite spectacular,” Kelly said. “We have certain rules that we have and she followed them almost to the letter, she did a fantastic job.”
Junior-aged receiver Mila Power also made a huge impact with a couple of big first-down runs on reverse plays while absorbing some big contact from the opposition.
“She’s been a bit of a spark for us all season, she’s got a lot of energy,” the coach added. “She’s one of our juniors and when the juniors played their game at the jamboree in Red Deer, she had four touches and four touchdowns.
“She’s a firecracker and fun to watch.”
Foothills will go into the postseason as the fourth-seed and will meet the first-place Red Deer in the semifinal with Calgary and Airdrie locking horns in the other fixture.
Both semifinals go down at Shouldice Park on June 11 with the Eagles match kicking off at 1 p.m.
For more information, visit foothillseaglesfootball.ca.