Prairie Football Conference Final will be an all-Saskatchewan affair – Regina
There’s an previous cliche in football that claims it’s laborious to beat a staff thrice, and that’s what the Regina Thunder should do in the event that they wish to declare their first Prairie Soccer Convention crown since 2013, once they went on to win the Canadian Bowl.
Standing in the best way are their provincial rival, the Saskatoon Hilltops. Actually, for the reason that Thunder received the Canadian Bowl in 2013, the Hilltops have received six-straight nationwide championships — a powerful streak to which the Thunder need to put an finish.
The season collection was a really tight one, with the Thunder profitable each matchups by a mixed whole of six factors.
Scott Macaulay, Thunder head coach, is aware of that the Hilltops will probably be a tricky out.
“I believe for us, each time we play in opposition to the Hilltops it’s an actual bodily battle so we acquired to verify our guys are mentally and bodily able to go to battle and play the total 60 minutes. I determine that the momentum will type of swap forwards and backwards so we simply acquired to verify we keep the course,” he mentioned.
The staff goes into the sport with the mindset to go away all of it on the sector in a win-or-go-home state of affairs.
“We’ve got a saying on the staff, it’s referred to as ‘burn the boat’: just about simply throw all of it on the road as a result of this might be our final recreation,” Thunder quarterback Carter Shewchuk mentioned.
To be able to win a soccer recreation a staff needs to be sharp in all three of its phases: offence, defence and particular groups, and for the Thunder, on defence which means working as a cohesive unit and trusting 11 different gamers to do their jobs.
“I acquired to do my job so different guys can do theirs, it’s what a defence relies off of. There’s no odd stud on our defence, everyone performs as an entire, . So one man does their job, simply off belief, ,” Thunder defensive lineman Reece McCormick mentioned.
One of many staff’s unsung heroes on the season has been their kicker, Eric Maximuik, who hit a 51-yard game-winning subject objective in Saskatoon. He says that when excessive strain conditions like that come up, he has no issues with nerves or exterior noise.
“I personally really feel fairly assured about going out and doing that, particularly doing it once more. It’s positively a kind of issues in my place the place you attempt to have the ability to do these type of issues and also you’re at all times excited once you get that chance, so to have the ability to do it once more can be tremendous thrilling.”
The Thunder will look to maintain their undefeated season rolling when the PFC Ultimate kicks off this Sunday, 1 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium.
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