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Saskatchewan wins gold at Football Canada Cup in Kelowna

Three Yorkton athletes competed for team Saskatchewan.

The Football Canada Cup hosted in Kelowna saw U18 men compete in 12 games from July 11-17

Teams included Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

Teams were made up of talent from all areas of each province using evaluation camps to pick the players and subsequent training camps to prepare the athletes for competition.

U18 Saskatchewan headed into the competition with back-to-back gold medal wins both in 2018 and 2019.  The competition was put on a two-year hold due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, but returned for 2022.

In Saskatchewan's first game, they came out with a win 40-0 against Nova Scotia. 

The second game was against Ontario and Saskatchewan won 23-11. 

In the gold medal game, Saskatchewan faced off against Alberta, with Saskatchewan coming out as the better team winning 13-1. 

The third championship makes it a 'three-peat' for Team Saskatchewan.  

Yorkton had three players chosen to participate with U18 Team Saskatchewan. Hayden Russell,  defensive line, Joey Palagian, linebacker and special teams and Aidan Leslie receiver and special teams. 

All three young men play with the Yorkton Regional High School Senior Raiders, with both Palagian and Leslie playing their last high school season this year.

For more information and scores, visit Football Canada's website and Football Saskatchewan's website