Tier III football
The St. Albert High Skyhawks host the Whitecourt Cats in the Tier III provincial north semifinal Saturday.Kickoff is 1 p.m. at Larry Olexiuk Field.
In week 10 of the Football Alberta Tier III (450 to 749 students) rankings, the Skyhawks are No. 3 and Whitecourt is No. 7.
The Skyhawks are 7-2 as the division two Miles conference finalists in the metro Edmonton league after losing last week’s playoff 27-12 to the Archbishop Jordan Scots (8-1).
Whitecourt is 5-3 as the Mighty Peace league rep after defeating the No. 9-ranked Peace Wapiti Academy Titans (6-3) of Grande Prairie 30-19 in the provincial qualifier.
The winner hosts the No. 2-ranked Holy Rosary Raiders (9-2) of Lloydminster or the No. 5-ranked Sylvan Lake Lakers (6-3) in the north final next Saturday for a berth at the Alberta Bowl championship Nov. 24 in Fort McMurray.
The Skyhawks are competing in their seventh Tier III playdowns since 2011 and the last three years have lost the north final to Holy Rosary by scores of 35-10 in 2017, 61-0 in 2016 and 28-0 in 2015.
The No. 1-ranked Cochrane Cobras (7-1) have won the Alberta Bowl four years in a row and five of the last six years.
Junior football
The metro Edmonton junior football playoffs kick off tonight for the Bellerose Bulldogs at Clarke Stadium.The division one semifinal between Bellerose (3-3) and Salisbury Sabres (6-0) starts at 7:30 p.m.
In league play, Salisbury bested the fourth-place Bulldogs 71-0 Oct. 10.
AFHL Raiders
The next game for the bantam elite St. Albert Raiders in the Alberta Female Hockey League is Thursday against the Sherwood Park Royals.Faceoff is 7 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Raiders are 2-4 after last weekend’s road trip against south division teams and the Royals are 5-0.
Saturday the Raiders and Royals square off at 11:15 a.m. in Sherwood Park and Sunday’s start time against the Lloydminster Steelers (4-2) is 3:30 p.m. at the Border City.
The Raiders are coming off a 2-0 win against the Lethbridge Hurricanes (0-6) and 3-1 loss to the Rocky Mountain Raiders (1-2-1).
Ashtyn Berthiaume stopped 14 shots while Braelyn Plaquin and Mea Gallagher scored in the third period against Lethbridge.
Paige Ring tallied on the power play in the third and Natalie Balog faced 15 shots against Rocky Mountain in Okotoks.
