SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
The Roadrunners bantam football season ended earlier in the month with Hunting Hills Lightning defeating the Roadrunners 27-7 in the Tier II provincials.
“It just wasn’t our game,” said Roadrunners head coach Mark Freeman.
He said the Lightning scored on their first drive thanks to about six Roadrunner penalties.
“Penalties killed us that game. They’ve been bugging us all year but they really killed us at the final game,” he said.
Austin Popeniuk scored on the Roadrunners first drive with Jamal Yuye kicking for the extra point and from there it was a back and forth game.
“They got a long one on us so we finished the half 14-7.”
The second half, he said, the Roadrunners, who had never been down in the scoreboard during the season, were nervous that led to penalty and fumbles.
“If we played that team 10 times we’d probably go 5-5. It just wasn’t our day that day,” he said.
The Lightning was the underdog going into the finals.
The team reached the provincials after claiming their first league title since 2015.
“They played well. They were ready for us. They shut down our outside run. We shut down their run game altogether but they had a good quarterback, great arm and their passing game is what managed to beat us,” he said.
The league winning Roadrunners will see 30 players that can advance to the Brooks Buffalos next season.
