Coyotes and Cougars set to clash

By Lethbridge Herald on October 20, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward The Catholic Central Cougars defence brings down a Cardston ball carrier during their Southern Alberta High School Football League game last Friday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Chinook Coyotes and Catholic Central Cougars will clash on the gridiron  in the first round of Tier 2 high school playoffs tonight to see who will head to Cardston the following week.

For the Cougars, they loss to the Coyotes earlier in the season, and the focus will be on sharpening some areas of their game and having some healthy bodies back  that weren’t available in the first game.

“Yeah, if we come out and play the best game that we can, I think that we can come out with the win,” said Cougars head coach Jordan Dyck.

Dyck was honest in saying they learned quite a bit from the first game with the ‘Yotes.

“I think No. 1, is we just have to play our game,” he said.

“Sometimes if you let them dictate the pace of the game (and) we don’t set the tone early, things can change. Football is also a  game of momentum. So it’s honestly about the team that can keep the momentum and make the least amount of mistakes and have the least amount of turnovers.”

The Cougars success, in Dyck’s eyes, will depend on how they start the game.

“I’m (not) going to lie, we’ve got five or six different ways we can go with it,” he said.

“We  have strength- good strong receivers, we have a good quarterback, we have a good running back, we have a good line.”

Dyck said it’s different when it comes to a do-or-die game.

“You’ve got to take risks maybe where you usally wouldn’t take risks, he said.

 “I feel the guys are really dialed in this week, said Coyotes head coach Nick Straat.

“Everybody is really excited, obviously it’s a big game, you know I think there’s some nerves there too. But overall, we’re really happy with how practice has gone and how the guys have prepared this week,”

Chinook’s focus has been on execution.

“It’s been an issue the last couple of weeks and so we need to get back to how we (were) playing football before and just transforming into a better football team,” said Straat.

Straat said playoffs change the tone of everything.

“Everybody’s fighting for their season,” said Straat.

“So we’re going to get their best game and I think they’re hungry to come back after  an eight-point loss in the last game.”

Straat thinks the team is ready and will find some success.

“It’ll come to how ready they are and yeah I don’t want to get too far into that one because that’s why we got to play the games,” said Straat.

Kick-off is 7:30 p.m. tonight at Community Sports Stadium at University of Lethbridge.

The winner will play Cardston in the second round on Oct. 28 and that winner will play a Rangeland  conference winner from Medicine Hat on Nov. 4.

The winner of that game will represent the south region at provincials in Calgary on Nov. 25 and 26.