Knight time has arrived at the provincial rugby finals.
The Holy Trinity Academy Knights boys overpowered the Foothills Falcons 73-0 Monday at the Calgary Rugby Union to claim the South Central Zone Tier 1 championship to put an exclamation point on its entry into the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association Provincial Rugby Championships.
“I thought this was definitely our best effort of the year,” said Grade 11 Knight, Xavier Krueger. “We played together the whole time, it wasn’t really any selfish play at all, individuals shined and our team did really well as a unit.”
“To play a team you’ve beaten twice and then to see them in a final, it is hard to get the right mindset. You can’t come in with any poor mindset about being beater than these guys, it will be a walk. Nobody did that, we had full intensity for 60 minutes.”
Krueger, sidelined for most of the season due to injury, said the biggest strides have been made in the team trusting one another across experience levels.
“We’ve built so much trust as a team so we can rely on each other where if a pass is going over your head, you know someone is going there to get it,” he said. “That’s the biggest difference between our first game of the season and now.”
The Knights boys defeated the Falcons twice during the regular season with the most recent meeting a 22-point margin of victory.
“Everyone was very patient the whole game,” said Grade 12 Knight Matisse Labrenz. “We were a little upset by the score in the last game we played against Comp, it was a little bit tighter and we didn’t want to show them that they had hope on us because we know we’re a high calibre team.”
Knights head coach Jason Krueger tipped his cap to the efforts of Marshall Hartwell in the backs along with strong forward play from Tate Wiens and Gavin Speers in the zone final.
Knights forward Ted Tell said the team’s success can be traced directly to its commitment at practice.
“It’s not a practice, it’s more of a fun time out with the boys to get better and learn from our mistakes from last game,” Tell said. “The practices we have are amazing and really help us get ready for games.
“This means so much, winning the final is such an accomplishment on its own, but getting a score of 73 and showing that we can play as a team and we’re one of the best in Alberta and it’s showing the other teams we’re on their level and we’re ready for provincials.”
The ASAA Provincial Rugby Championships run June 9-10 at the CRU.
For more information, visit asaa.ca/championships.
