Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

The Western Canada Redmen capped off an undefeated season with a narrow 10-7 victory over the Central Memorial Rams to capture the senior boys’ Div II championship banner.

Both teams were the class of division throughout the entire season, combining for a total of 11 wins and just one loss.

The only loss of course came when the Redmen defeated the Rams 21-8 in the final week of the regular season to lock up the honour of entering the post season as the No. I ranked team.

The rematch on Saturday didn’t quite see as many points put on the board.

Instead it was the defensive squads from both sides that dominated the play.

The Redmen got on the board on their first possession of the game when quarterback Eli Prochnau found Sean Adamson wide open in the middle of the end zone on 10-yard pass.

The lead stood until until late in the third quarter when the Rams finally got on the board courtesy of a touchdown by running back Adam Osterling, who found the end zone after a tough 15-yard run up the guts of the Redmen defense.

The game remained tied until the 7:54 mark of the 4th quarter when Prochnau booted a 35-yard field goal to give the Redmen a 10-7 lead.

The defense did the rest by shutting down the normally potent Rams offense to seal the victory.

Despite being a low-scoring game, the final had the feel of an old-fashioned shootout and could have easily been a much higher scoring game had it not been for a few bad breaks at key moments.

“It was the toughest game we’ve had all season so my hat goes off to Central Memorial,” said Redmen’s head coach Shane Sokilan. “I know they’re hurting right now but they brought out the best game that we could play, which is what champions are supposed to do.”

The quarterback duel between the Redmen’s Prochnau and the Rams’ Tim Coles was terrific for the entire game.

Both pivots made impressive plays on the ground and in the air.

“Eli has been our go-to guy all year on our offense,” said Sokilan. “Eli is just one of those kids that can just make moves and do things that I haven’t seen, and I’ve been coaching for 20 years. He’s an outstanding athlete.”

And when the Rams were in desperation mode attempting to even up the score, it was Coles who played the role of playmaker to a tee.

But in the end the Rams were continuously frustrated by the Redmen’s defense, who bent on several occasions, but never broke.

Perhaps it was just good preparation by the team’s coaching staff, who poured over game film of the teams’ earlier match to build a solid game plan that was obviously executed almost perfectly by the players.

“We didn’t change a lot,” said Sokilan. “We looked at our film and saw what worked before and we added a couple new wrinkles and a bit of different style of offense to give them something else that they would have to adjust on the fly.”

The good news for the Redmen is that next year they’ll be moving up to Div I, and with seven players returning on their defensive squad alone, they’ll most definitely be considered a team to be reckoned with.

Action photos from this game are available HERE.