Provincial Final Predictions????

What a story the Swan Valley Tigers have been this year. They have never even won a playoff game until this year and they find themselves in the final. Will the Cinderella story continue or will the devils blaze those hopes? I have to believe this will be a much better game then last time and I think it will come down to who makes the last big play. I am a little bias but I believe the score will be 35 -28 tigers!

That's not actually true. The Tigers hadn't played a playoff game in the Saskatchewan playoffs but in Manitoba the Tigers had dominated dominated rural high school football winning the Provincial championships in 1958,59,62,68,76,78,93,96, 97,98,99 & 2000 and played in as many finals. In 2000 the Tigers defeated very talented Vincent Massey Vikings of Brandon who had the likes of Chris Bauman (Hamilton Tiger-cats) 43-21. It is coincidental and unfortunate that the Tigers had some tough years with numbers and talent after a boys soccer program was added making three male sports in the same season. So the program has seen considerable success in the past.

The 44-8 defeat of the Tigers in Swan River on October 25 really doesn't tell the story of the game. The Tigers made a number of mental errors in the first half that cost them. The Devils are just too good of a team to recover from mistakes that stop or breath new life into drives.

The Devils would have a huge advantage in the experience category.

The Tigers have an advantage in the Emotion category (Almost no one picked the Tigers to get out of the conference let alone be in the final).

Special teams are very close between the two teams.

Defense would go to the Devils although since October the Tigers Defense has matured a lot making this much closer than a month ago.

The weather shouldn't have an effect on one team or the other. The type of offense these two teams run is well suited for any type of weather.

Offensively both teams have great running games and running backs . Mukendi is quick and very hard to tackle cleanly and can make big things happen when it looks like he is dropped for a loss. In the first game Hart was a non factor offensively, if the Devils can shut him down again it's game over.

What ever happens will cap off a great season for one of the teams. It is nice to see two teams with such classy coaching staffs meet in the final.

I would like to wish both teams good luck but my heart has to be with the underdog!