The St. Albert Rugby Football Club is double trouble in two finals today at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
The third division men scrum down against the Pirates at noon for the Visser Cup in the Edmonton Rugby Union and the premier men battle the Nor’Westers for the Ken Ann Cup at 4 p.m.
The northern Alberta champions advance to provincials Oct. 3 at Ellerslie.
The thirds (10-3) have won six in a row and the Pirates (11-2) haven’t lost in seven matches.
In May, the thirds beat the 2014 Visser Cup champions and Digby Dinnie Cup provincial finalists 25-8 at SARFC.
The last third division celebration was 1997, when SARFC swept the ERU and provincial finals.
The SARFC first 15 (12-2-1) are unbeaten in nine Alberta Cup premier matches as winners of eight straight and the Nor’Westers (8-6-1) are 3-3 in their last six matches.
In league play the firsts posted wins of 20-7 and 43-15 against the Nor’Westers.
Last year, the firsts won their sixth Ken Ann Cup in seven-straight trips to the north final and their second Labatt’s Cup provincial title in SARFC history since 2010.
The playoffs are underway at the annual St. Albert Physical Education Council junior high volleyball tournament, sponsored by St. Albert Active Physio Works.
Paul Kane High School and Lorne Akins School are the venues for the boys and the SkyDome and Vincent J. Maloney School are hosting the girls.
The finals are 3:15 p.m. for the boys at Paul Kane and the girls at the SkyDome.
Friday’s round-robin draw featured 16 boys’ and 16 girls’ teams divided into four pools to determine the first-round playoff pairings.
The tournament consists of 102 best-of-three matches.
Last year, Lorne Akins defeated the Riverbend Centurions in the boys’ final and Riverbend downed the Camilla Thunderbirds in the girls’ final.
The St. Albert Merchants host the North Edmonton Red Wings in the Capital Junior B Hockey League Sunday.
Faceoff is 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The Red Wings are the 2015 Founders Cup and provincial champions and silver medallists at westerns.
The Merchants were in Stony Plain Friday to play the Flyers but the score was unavailable at press time.
Last weekend, the Challenge Cup pennant winners the last two years started league play with identical 3-1 losses to the Hawks in Fort Saskatchewan and Beverly Warriors in St. Albert.
