Blasco twins crowned CJFL champions

By Lethbridge Herald on November 12, 2024.

submitted photo Ryder Blasco, Gage Blasco and teammate Leighten Boynton share a moment with the Canadian Bowl trophy on Saturday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge’s Blasco twins of Ryder and Gage were crowned Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL)champions as their St. Clair Saints of the Ontario Football Conference knocked off the Okanagan Sun of the British Columbia Football Conference 37-22 in the Canadian Bowl game on Saturday at home.

Gage played in the game while Ryder watched from sidelines after having shoulder surgery.

“It’s still pretty surreal,” said Gage.

“I don’t think it’s fully hit yet that we’re national champions. We came into the season fully expecting that we were going to win the Ontario conference again, but we all kind of came into it with an attitude of once we get out of the Ontario conference, it’s going to be tough.”

Gage said the beginning of the game was rough.

“We had a lot of little mistakes that just didn’t turn out in our favour but I think we all realized that we definitely could win the game,” said Gage.

“We realized that this team that we were playing was not all that they were hyped up to be. I saw that specifically when I was out on special teams and I realized that hey a lot of the guys on London’s team were hitting harder and blocking more than some of these guys. And when our defense shut down the top running back (Elelyon Noa) in the country, we knew that we definitely had a chance to turn the score around.”

The team had to adjust to the Sun’s attack early on.

“Okanagan definitely came out a little stronger (and) faster than we were and we kind of just had to adjust to their tempo,” said Ryder.

“It was a little different to adjust because the BCFC (British Columbia Football Conference) and the PFC (Prairie Football Conference) are very run-heavy as you can see and if you look at stats and everything, it’s very run-heavy and then out here we run a lot of passes but we could also run read options where we can run or pass out of a bunch of different formations. So I feel in the second we really utilized that.”

Ryder sees the team going in the right direction with the championship win.

“It’s definitely a very strong step towards becoming a power conference in the CJFL,” said Ryder.

There were six players on the Sun’s roster that also played high school football in Lethbridge including Gage Parker, Grady Hay, Dylan Waite, Jakob Soldiers, Marcus Christos and Cardston’s Hunter Bultsma.

“Southern Alberta was really strongly represented here and it shows that our high school programs definitely are some of the best in the country,” said Gage.

“It really shows that the players that have come out of our league really do have a lot of grit and determination which really says something.”

This was the first time in 25 years that the Windsor-based Saints won Canada’s oldest football championship.