The Ponoka Secondary Campus Broncs concluded their season the way they started, albeit in far less dramatic fashion.
Back on Sept. 6, the Broncs needed a penalty and a 43-yard field goal to edge past Rocky Mountain House 22-20. This time around, in the league’s consolation playoff game Oct. 31, Ponoka came away with a 39-22 victory.
Erik Mathieu got things rolling for Ponoka with a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter to go up 12-0.
However, Rocky got their offence rolling in the opening minutes of the second courtesy of a 60-yard pass and run touchdown. They also managed to make the convert to cut the lead to 12-7.
After that, the game became a field position battle until the final three minutes of the first half when the Broncs would strike again.
Quarterback Luke Bonnett scrambled to his right, eluding several Rocky defenders in pursuit, before throwing a pass that Joel Hollingsworth snagged with one hand and then sprinted to the end zone for the major score. After missing a two-point convert attempt, the scoreboard had Ponoka up 18-7 at half time.
The visitors didn’t give up, marching down the field to open the third quarter, only to have their drive stall at the Broncs 9-yard line. That forced Rocky to settle for a field goal.
Ponoka would do one better, driving nearly 80 yards and eating up a lot of time in the third quarter, before finishing it off with a 7-yard touchdown run by Tade Tonneson to increase the lead to 24-10.
The Broncs seemed to have things well in hand, when Jordan Young came up with an interception deep in their own end. However, the Ponoka offence would fumble two plays later, giving Rocky some great field position.
Rocky would capitalize on that chance just 20 seconds into the fourth, scoring a touchdown to make it 24-16.
Ponoka would put the game out of reach with less than six minutes remaining, following a great defensive stand by the Broncs to force Rocky to punt from inside their 15-yard line.
Tonneson would outrun the Rocky defence on an end-around play for the 24-yard touchdown, while Hollingsworth catches the two-point covert for a 32-16 lead.
That was followed on Rocky’s second play of their possession after the kickoff by Ponoka’s Isaac McCaughey stripping the ball out of the hands of the running back and rumbling the 10 yards for a touchdown. Conner Stiles made the convert, pushing the lead to 39-16.
Rocky wouldn’t give up, scoring a touchdown with just over two minutes left, but the two-point convert failed and Ponoka was able to recover the onside kick attempt that enabled them to run out the clock.
