CANMORE – Giant smiles flooded over the faces of the players and coaches of the Canmore Wolverines following the high school football team’s most important victory of the young season.
Many knew that when the perennial rival Drumheller Titans was in town last Thursday (Sept. 19), it would speak volumes about how the rest of the Wolverines’ 2024 campaign would play out.
After five long seasons of heartbreak and defeats, this was a game that the hungry Wolverines were desperate to come away with.
“This was the do-or-die for our team,” said Wolverines’ Jack Summerhays.
“In the four years I’ve been on the team, we haven’t beaten them. Coming into my senior year here I was really nervous, but, like, after we beat them it felt amazing knowing that this is the year to do it out of all the years, my senior year, I had all my friends with me and it felt amazing doing that.”
The Wolverines bombed out the Titans, 31-7, improving their record to 3-0 – their best start to a season in years.
Quarterback Yoshi Dreger threw four touchdown passes, connecting with Noah Kimbley-Nicolai and Summerhays for two scores in the end zone each. The Titans had no answer for the Wolverines’ long ball, which connected on three 50-yard or more touchdown passes.
“We started off with the run, but they had no safety, so everything deep was just free, so it was pretty easy,” said Kimbley-Nicolai.
Late in the fourth and losing by 24 points, the Titans’ coaching staff argued a call from the referees and then removed their high school players off the field in protest, forfeiting the game.
The win pushes the Wolverines’ undefeated streak a little more up the road; however, the big victory was the confidence and belief gained by the team that hasn’t been seen since 2018, when they won the provincial championship.
“We want to take it all the way,” said Summerhays. “We’re a lot more confident and it’s just our boys on defence holding it down for offence and that really helps the team because once we got that then our offence can go out there and do what they do.”
In three games, the Wolverines have outscored opponents 110-13.
After beating the Titans, Canmore’s 3A tier provincial ranking moved up to eighth.
“The goal is to be undefeated and win the provincials, as usual, and keep a zero on the board,” said Kimbley-Nicolai.
“We have a different mentality [this season]; everyone is here to be aggressive, win, there’s no more laziness. We’re a lot more efficient this year.”
The Wolverines play Saturday (Sept. 28) at Millennium Field against the Olds Spartans. It’s the Wolverines’ final regular season home game before they hit the road. Kick-off is 1 p.m.
