Taber bantam Rebels earn provincial championship

Times Photo Submitted

By Garrett Simmons
For the Taber Times

The Taber bantam Rebels football team capped off an undefeated season with a provincial championship. 

Saturday in Ponoka, the Rebels scored a 22-6 win over the Ponoka Broncs in the Football Alberta Bantam 9-A-Side Tier 2 final. 

In a hard-fought game, the Rebels earned an early 6-0 lead, before Ponoka stormed back to tie to score at six. 

From there, the rest of the first half belonged to the visiting Rebels, as the Taber bantam squad put up two more TDs in the first half, to go into the locker room with a two-touchdown lead. 

Hosea Unger, Prieston Wight and Lincoln Torsius had Taber’s major scores in the contest, as Unger and Harmon Pierson were the team’s leading tacklers on defence. 

Speaking of defence, the Rebels held the fort in the second half, particularly in the third quarter, as the Broncs desperately tried to get back into the game. 

“Our defence was on the field for 10 minutes of the third quarter but still shut down the Broncs offence,” said Rebels head coach Jamie O’Connor, who added the D also came up big with two blocked punts in the game. 

Defensive lineman Cole Antosko and Tomas Masilago chipped in with quarterback sacks, as Taber needed every ounce of effort to keep Ponoka off the scoreboard. 

“It was a dogfight,” said O’Connor. “Ponoka was a strong team – our toughest opponent by far, but we were able to wear them down with our physicality, and the team was able to shut them down and not let them get any momentum after their one score.” 

In the first half, a Masilago fake punt was one of key plays, as later in that drive, Unger hauled in a Wight TD pass to give the Rebels some first-half momentum. 

That turned out to be an important drive for the Rebels, as the team had to overcome a little early adversity, as Taber only had a 20-minute warm up prior to kick-off. 

“These kids worked all season, and were the true definition of a team, where everybody contributed to the success of the entire season,” said O’Connor, who added the bantams had a truly dominant season. “We ended up 12-0 on the season, outscoring opponents 406-72.”