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Senior Titans tromp Carstairs

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The new Big Sky League is getting the Senior Titans more games and more looks at different teams, and on Wednesday, September 27 they had a look at Carstairs.
The Titans played Carstairs in Didsbury, and blanked them 34-0.
“It was one of those games. It’s hard to prepare for a team that you have not seen a lot of,” said Head Coach Ken Fournier.
He said Carstairs came out with a similar offence to one that the Titans sometimes use. It took some time for the Titans to adjust to the small differences. The score was only 7-0 up until the half, but the Titans were able to hold Carstairs off.
On offense, the Titans used the game to work on their passing game.
“The idea on offence is we didn’t want to run the ball too much. We have kind of been relying on it so we wanted to make sure we spread the ball around in the air and it worked out for us,” said Fournier.
He says the team is continuing to progress, and getting better at the mental aspects of the game.
“You develop that stuff throughout the entire season. As league play goes on it will determine if things get cleaned up. I still think we took more penalties than we should have,” said Fournier.
His takeaway from the game was its success on offense.
“I was happy that throughout the game we started moving the ball in the air to different targets. It was not just one or two guys, we wanted to spread the ball around and make sure we were working on that stuff,” he said.
The Titans are hosting the Highwood Mustangs on Friday, October 6. Highwood is also relatively new, but it has been playing exhibition for two years developing its program. This season it made the jump to the senior level. This will also be the Titans’ Senior Night.

Bantam Titans undefeated

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The Bantam Titans are cruising through the season with an undefeated record.
The Bantam Titans are sporting a 3-0 record. They topped Ponoka 49-6, beat Airdrie 53-26 and last weekend went head to head with Carstairs and came up with a win.
“Carstairs is a new program, and it was 63-0 by halftime,” said coach Brad Iverson.
The team was able to get a lot of their players in for in-game experience and did well on special teams and returns.
He notes that he has been on the receiving end of these types of games and it is important to be respectful of their opponent.
While they have a strong record, there are a few teams this season that are also going undefeated, but they may not see them until the playoffs.
“It looks like Strathmore and Olds are both undefeated and we don’t see them in the regular season, so it looks like maybe come playoffs, it will be a real test. They are both playing really well.”
He notes the Bantam Titans were in Calgary during the preseason for a Jamboree, and were up against tougher teams that challenged them to improve their game.

Next up is Springbank for the Bantam Titans who are also having a fairly good season, and might challenge the Bantams a little more.
“If we play our games we should do really well against Springbank, but they are looking like a stronger team,” said Iverson.
They will also be playing Hanna in the near future, before the season begins.

Dragons split at Showcase Weekend in Calgary

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The Dragons continue to play well and split their games at the AJHL Showcase weekend.
The Showcase this season was at Max Bell Centre in Calgary, and the Dragons played two games.
On Thursday, September 28, they played the Whitecourt Wolverines. The teams had previously met this regular season, and Drumheller topped Whitecourt 4-1. This time Whitecourt had the jump outshooting the Dragons 13-5 in the first period. There was no scoring until the second when Whitecourt connected on the powerplay. Whitecourt scored again to go up 2-0 just 31 seconds into the third. They added an empty netter to win 3-0.
On Saturday, September 30, the Dragons were back on the ice to play against the Spruce Grove Saints. After a scoreless first period, Vann Yuhas put the Dragons up, assisted by Adam Raesler and Easton Adrian, just 59 seconds into the second period. Just 34 seconds later Raesler scored his sixth of the season assisted by Adrian and Coy Pighin.
In the third period, Spencer Claerhout scored his first of the season, assisted by Kai Matthews, to go up 3-0. The Saints added one with 13 seconds left to stave off a shutout.
The Dragons are 5-2 and in fifth place, and interestingly, the top six teams are all from the south.
This Tuesday, October 3, the Dragons hosted the Okotoks Oilers, results were not available at press time. On Friday, October 6, they return the favour and head to Okotoks. On Saturday they are back home to play the Drayton Valley Thunder.

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