The Banting Marauders hosted the Collingwood Owls at Banting Memorial High School Thursday afternoon with mixed results.

The junior squad shut out Collingwood 22-0, but the senior squad took it on the chin loosing 13-6 to the Owls.

Junior Team

The Juniors turned up the pressure with the offence in the early going and kept up a strategy that left the Owls trying to dig out of a hole for the rest of the game.

Kicker Spencer Davis placed one between the uprights in the first quarter to give the Marauders a three-point lead.

Davis made his second successful kick on a convert after Mike Gautreau ran in for a TD in the second quarter to give Banting a 10-point lead.

The Owls were pinned at the 45-yard line and forced to punt, but a short kick gave the Marauders the ball at their 40-yard line. Unable to make any yards, Collingwood took possession but gave it up when Duncan Spilsbury snagged an interception with a minute left in the half.

The turnaround ran out the downs with no real yards gained, but when the Owls went on the offensive Spilsbury did it again after catching the ball when it was tipped off a receiver’s fingers during a long pass with eight seconds left in the half.

Gautreau made his second touchdown of the game early in the second half when he caught a short pass and ran 15 yards to score.

Banting blew the game wide open late in the fourth quarter when Josh Kraly took the ball and ran for 32 yards to give the Marauders the first down and place them in a good field position to score.

Will Hall ran wide two plays later to cross the goal and give Banting a 22-point lead.

A last ditch effort by Collingwood gained some yards including a first down when a running back made a wild effort down the sidelines but the effort came too late and the Banting Juniors left with the win.

Senior Game

The Senior squad were stung with their second loss in a row after going down in defeat 16-14 in a road game against Innisdale the previous week. The away game turned against the Marauders with only seconds left on the clock when Innisdale scored on the last play of the game to take the win by two points.

The squad also lost defensive back Lowell Weir who left the game with a broken foot and will be out for the rest of the season.

Thursday’s loss came against a tough Collingwood squad in a game that saw a lot of kicking. Both squads turned out a strong defensive effort that turned the first two quarters into a stalemate at midfield.

Linemen Mark Warren, Alex Dulder and Alex Addorisio all figured into the mix when the Collingwood squad tried to break through near the 50-yard line.

The Owls finally made some gains on a long pass that brought them to the 10-yard line late in the half, but again the Banting squad held tough.

Collingwood opened the scoring early in the third quarter and followed up with the extra point with a successful convert.

The Marauders made some good gains after starting deep in their own end but couldn’t drive through and the turnaround went to the Owls after the final down.

Banting made another hard drive early in the fourth quarter gaining a first down then following up with another 10-yard gain that brought them to the 11-yard line.

Addorisio made a strong run through the middle that gave the Marauders the ball at the one-yard line.

The follow up play put Banting on the scoreboard when the linemen broke through the middle on the goal line and QB Colin Hutterer crashed through for the six points.

Collingwood secured the game with a six-pointer late in the half. The Seniors have a 3-2 record going into the final games of the season.