It was a game you had to see to believe after Zone 2-Big Country claimed Bronze yesterday (July 22) at the Alberta Summer Games in Grande Prairie.

“The twists, the turns, the storylines were just incredible,” says Airdrie’s Chris Glass who coached the team this year, “We ended up giving up a touchdown on the opening drive. We answered right back. We went into the fourth quarter down by two scores and we really needed to do some things to change the momentum.”

The Zone 2 team proudly shows off their Bronze Medal (Photo Courtesy: Chris Glass)

Several local players helped lead the charge for Zone 2, who had to work hard to tie the game and force overtime.

“Landon Reed, one of the Bert Church receivers made an outstanding highlight reel, toe-drag catch to keep the drive alive. Our fullback, Liam McKeage had two touchdowns and a two-point conversion and caught a screen pass to get into the end zone really late in the game to tie it up.”

Eventually, Big Country and Parkland would head to overtime where Parkland scored on their first possession in OT but missed the 2 point convert.

After Zone 2 scored, they only needed to kick the extra point to win the game.

Unfortunately, their kicker missed the extra point, but Parkland was flagged for lining up offsides, giving Zone 2 another chance and they were successful. The final score was 27-26

Glass says that the overall experience at the Summer Games was one to remember.

“This group of kids was pretty great. All three of our games were very close games. We could have easily been sitting here with a gold medal. Our team learned how to win close games, they learned how to deal with losing a close game and then they went out and shut them out in the most important one there.”

With several Airdrie players as part of the team, Glass says there’s something to look forward to in this year’s High School Football season.

“Michael Schaan is going to be someone at George Mac that we’re going to see a lot of. On the other side, we have some Bert Church kids with Tristan Remus and Landon Reed and Josh Chrisman. The way they showed up to this camp tells me they can really play football and it’s going to give me nightmares come September.”

A total of 11 Airdrie players made the Zone 2 roster at the Summer Games in Grande Prairie

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