SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Medicine Hat Junior. Hawks pose in front of the scoreboard after their 67-33 provincial championship win Saturday against the Red Deer Junior Cougars at the Methanex Bowl.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
For the second straight year and third time in the past four seasons, the Medicine Hat Junior Hawks are provincial champions.
The Hawks captured the Alberta tier II title Saturday morning at the Methanex Bowl in a 67-33 win over the Red Deer Junior Cougars.
Head coach Scott Howes says the win is a testament to the type of kids they have on the team.
“We told them last year to make it to provincial finals and to win, I had coached 19 years and had been in the finals four times and never won. Now we’ve won three times in four years,” Howes said. “It’s like when you get a young kid and they score a goal in their first shift in hockey, they have no idea it’s hard to score sometimes. For these kids, they sometimes get given something they’ve worked hard for but they don’t even know how hard it takes to get to that point.”
The Jr. Hawks were led offensively in a massive way by Grade 9 athlete Keene Shigehiro, who ran for a whopping 563 yards with five touchdowns, and threw a passing TD to Hayden Van Maarion. He added two more touchdowns, a 75-yard opening kickoff return, and a 45-yard punt return. It was a performance his coach won’t forget.
“I’ve had kids I’ve coached who have played in the CFL, I’ve had kids that are playing in CIS right now. But if he doesn’t go full ride somewhere, I would be shocked because he’s a very talented individual,” Howes said.
Van Maarion also scored on a 35-yard run for his second TD of the game, and Mateo Laliberte add a 1-yard TD and was 7/10 on converts.
The defence was led by Matthias Cardona with seven tackles, Jackson Snazel added six tackles of his own, with a forced fumble. Lyric Papineau, Hayden Van Maarion and Mason Hines each contributed interceptions on defence.
Howes tipped his cap to the City of Medicine Hat for clearing off the Methanex Bowl and having it ready for them to play.
“Everything was set up that we could host a very pretty cool event and have other teams come down and know that it’s like that. Just the fact that our community is so awesome, it’s something I have pride in.”
Senior Hawks, Vikings fall in
provincials
The Varsity Hat High Hawks and Crescent Heights Vikings were also in provincial competition over the weekend. The Hawks lost 42-6 against the Holy Trinity Academy Knights and the Vikings lost 23-13 against the Strathmore Spartans on Saturday to end their playoffs.
