NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Hat High's Raymond Ngo attempts to bring down Vikings ball carrier Luca Mitchell in their game on Sept. 24. The Hawks beat Crescent Heights 34-7 in the matchup.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
It’s almost poetic that the top two Rangeland Football Conference teams will face off for the championship.
The Hat High Hawks, who finished first in the RFC and have won the last six league championships, will host the Crescent Heights Vikings, who finished second, at the Methanex Bowl Friday to decide the better team of 2021.
Hawks head coach Quinn Skelton says that having played for the same Rangeland trophy back in the 1980s when he attended school, he knows his kids will be ready for the matchup.
“I know it’s important to all of the kids locally, we’ll definitely be ready for it,” he said.
The Hawks and Vikings met once this season, back on Sept. 24, when Hat High beat Crescent Heights 34-7. That was the only loss on the season for the Vikings.
Crescent Heights head coach Sean Davis says the inner-city games are competitive already and their loss to Hat High earlier in the season hasn’t added anything extra to that.
“I think our city games are always a little more emotional,” Davis said. “The football teams in Medicine Hat are very competitive with one another and in Alberta. I don’t think we have any extra animosity or anything like that, we’re just going to show up, play our game and do our best and we’ll see what happens.”
Davis added he doesn’t think his team has played their best game yet, and if the Vikings show up to play, they can play with anyone.
For the Hawks, who went undefeated in Rangeland games, Skelton says his team needs to keep the mindset of earning every day ahead of Friday night’s game.
“We just need to keep the mindset that we aren’t gifted anything and we’re not entitled to anything and we have to go out and earn it each and every day,” Skelton said.
Both the Hawks and Vikings qualified for provincials with their playoff wins last week against Monsignor McCoy and Brooks, respectively.
Skelton said it’s not hard to keep focused on the RFC championship even with provincials on the horizon.
“Both teams know we’re going into provincials but we have a job to do first,” he said.
Davis says his team’s main goal was to qualify for provincials and they are happy to do so. But he says the work isn’t done yet and his team knows that.
“We take our season on a week-by-week basis, day by day and I don’t think it’s going to be an issue,” Davis said. “We don’t usually have to fire them up to play city games. I think we’re going to be just fine… We still have one more week’s worth of work to do before we get there.”
The championship game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
The Colts will face the Brooks Buffalos on Friday before the Hawks and Vikings game in the RFC consolation finals. That game gets underway at 5 p.m.
