BANFF – Don’t mess with the Bears.
The girls of Banff rugby have made destroying opponents look easy this season, winning the Big Sky League title in an undefeated season and locking up a spot to play in the zones final next week.
But the defending zones champs aren’t cooling their jets just yet and are staring down a chance at making local history by winning back-to back zones.
“Right now, the one thing I’m trying to instill is confidence,” said Bears head coach Lee Garrett. “It’s that fine line between confidence and cockiness you have to be aware of and right now they’re confident and that’s right where I want them.”
The Bears were drenched in self-assurance during their final regular season match as they steamrolled the Croxford Cavaliers 69-5 on May 15 at the Banff rec grounds.
Bears’ Charlotta Kulik scored a game-high three tries and Cat Dang rushed in for two.
With one try each were Hannah Macnaughton, Cassidy Born, Eva O’Connor, Krista Scurfield, Grace Pigott and Heidi Poernbacher.
Pigott and Poernbacher combined to kick six conversations.
The crushing win was the Bears’ fourth of the season, which had many veteran starters exiting the laugher early on in favour of hungry rookies looking for playing time.
The Cavs chances to be competitive against the top-seeded Bears evaporated quickly with an onslaught of tries in the first half. The visitors were just another victim at the mercy of the Bears’ deadly offence. For Banff, the 64-point differential was their largest win margin in a season of blowouts.
In their four games, the Bears outscored opponents by a whopping 188-46.
The win secured a Big Sky League title for the Bears, but Garrett said it’s more about the step towards the team’s ultimate goal of playing for another zones title and then challenging provincial competition.
The only team that’s challenged the local girls was their biggest enemy, the Springbank Phoenix, which the Bears squeaked out a 20-19 victory earlier in May.
The rival teams meet again in the zones final on Thursday (May 30) at 4:30 p.m. at Calgary Rugby Union.
As long as the Bears play like they train – as a team – Garrett’s confident in a positive outcome.
“We have a set way of playing the game. There were a lot of individual efforts last game and we didn’t find that structure,” Lee said. “They’ll [the Phoenix] come out hard like they always do … This time, we should be able to run away with it.”
