Some of the best high school football seniors from this past season were in Hafford Tuesday night to renew an international tradition.
It was the Can-Am Bowl, a matchup between six-man football teams representing Canada and the United States.
This was the 20th edition of the game. The all-star contest dates back to July 1997 when an American all-star team took on a Canadian squad in Porcupine Plain. It has rotated among a number of smaller Saskatchewan communities and this was Hafford's first time hosting the game.
Saskatchewan has been a hotbed of six-man football, a variant played at smaller rural high schools that do not have the enrolment numbers to field competitive nine-or-12 man football teams.
The Canadian roster consisted entirely of Saskatchewan players. Connor Garrett represented Hafford on the roster, and there were also players from Watrous, Hague, Southey, Wynyard and other smaller Saskatchewan communities.
For Team USA six players came from neighbouring Montana, while six were from football-mad Texas. There were also three from Wyoming and two from Nebraska.
The Hafford Central School field had a "Friday Night Lights" feel to it with stands packed with fans, most of them pro-Canada although a good number of U.S. fans made it up for the game.
Going into Tuesday night, the Americans had won 15 all-star contests to Canada's four, and also were riding a six-game win streak.
The game was played on a 100-yard field with three downs; one interesting rule for conversions saw teams awarded two points for a kick and one for a run into the end zone.
Team USA started the opening drive of the game from their 40-yard line and moved the ball quickly down the field. A big run by Adrian Flores of Meadow, Texas took the Americans down to the Canadians' three yard line.
Some good defence by the Canadians forced Team USA into a third-and-goal gamble situation, and they converted as Gabe Haney of Hyannis, Neb. fought his way into the end zone for a touchdown. Team USA took the early 8-0 lead.
Canada squandered their first drive of the game, when a receiver fumbled the ball right into the Americans' hands near the sideline right after making a great catch for a big gain.
With 5:05 left Team USA scored again with a running play by Braden Duncan into the end zone, and the kick after made it 16-0.
Not long after, Team Canada mounted their first serious threat of the game. A great catch by Ryan Krupski of Lemberg at the 20 put Canada in the red zone late in the first quarter. A good run by QB Drayden Ukrainetz took the ball down to the 10, but inside the 10 the Canadian offence bogged down.
On third and goal, Ukrainetz was sacked at the five-yard line, forcing a turnover and squandering a great Canadian opportunity.
But Team USA was pinned deep and eventually forced to punt, putting Canada in great position to score as the quarter ended.
Early in the second quarter, Carter Dahl of Rosthern finally punched it in for the first Canada touchdown of the game. The conversion made it 16-8.
With Canada pinned deep, the most spectacular play came when Gabriel Cook ran down the field and evaded the entire U.S. defence. He took it into the house and the convert tied the game at 16-16.
Late in the half Team Canada mounted another impressive drive that ended with a touchdown, but the convert was missed, so the score stood at 22-16.
Team USA came right back. They drove the ball down to the one-yard line and even though Canada managed to get two big stops at the goal line a quarterback keeper by Sam Middleton of Happy, Texas, tied it up at 22-22.
The convert made it 24-22 Team USA and that would be the score at halftime.
It seemed like a spectacular start to the second half for Canada when Krupski ran the kickoff all the way into the end zone for a touchdown, but it was called back due to a penalty.
After that, Team Canada simply could not get things rolling in the second half.
A deep pass to Carter Johnson resulted in another U.S. touchdown in the third quarter, but the convert was no good so the score stood at 30-22.
Team Canada had major problems getting past the U.S. defence in the third quarter and on a third down punting situation they ended up losing the ball which wound up going into their own end zone, with Team USA falling on the football for the touchdown.
That made it 38-22 USA.
In the fourth quarter, conditions took a turn for the worse as a steady rain came down on the stadium.
Canada gave up a safety, followed by a Team USA return deep into Canadian territory that set up another U.S. touchdown. The convert made it 47-22.
A run by Duncan into the end zone, followed by the convert made it 55-22 USA to turn what had been a close contest into a runaway.
Team USA scored one last touchdown as time expired for a 61-22 final score in a game far closer than the scoreboard might indicate.
And with that, Team USA got to lift the Can-Am Bowl trophy once again.
The game awards were as follows: Gabe Haney was the offensive player of the game, CJ Stevenson the defensive player and Cooper Gray the special teams player of the game for Team USA. For Team Canada, Carter Dahl was offensive player of the game, Landon Schutte was defensive player and Drayden Ukrainetz was special teams player of the game.
