The Red Deer Buccaneers had their playoff position destiny within grasp, but let it slip away in a hard fought 20-7 loss to the hometown Edmonton Stallions on Saturday afternoon. 

Fantastic defensive play had the Stallions confused in the first half and gave the Bucs excellent field position several times.  However, 3 trips inside the red zone and 3 missed field goals later, the Bucs came out empty and the Stallions took a 9-0 halftime lead on a conceded safety and long TD pass.  

The Stallions had no success in their running game, so they decided to throw the ball up for grabs, and it was the Stallion receivers who came up with most of the Hail Mary passes en route to 11 points in the second half. 

The Bucs only points came after Bucs DB Jordan Willie intercepted a pass and returned it 85 yards to the Stallions 12 yard line late in the 4th quarter.  QB Josh Achtemichuk scrambled his way to a short TD pass 2 plays later.

Josh Achtemichuk: 13 of 32 for 120 yards 1 TD, 4 INTs, 1 Sack

WR Adam Donovan: 4 catches for 48 yards, 1 TD.

LB Braden Doupe: 3 solo, 5 assisted tackles.

LB Jeremy Makila: 3 solo, 2 assisted tackles, 1 knockdown.

This loss puts the Bucs in 6th place and sends them off to Grande Prairie to face the Drillers Saturday August 21st in the Alberta Football League Quarter Final! 

It seemed pretty sloppy at times, but a win is a win.  That's exactly what the Bucs got on Saturday evening on their LAST home game of the season - a 47 to 14 win against the visiting Sherwood Park Renegades. 

Several miscues by the Renegades gave the Bucs a VERY short field to work with early on and an early 14-0 score.  Several Bucs drives were earned, though, as they worked their way to a penalty-filled 33-7 halftime lead.

Two more TDs for the Bucs and one by the Renegades was all the scoring in the second half to make the final 47-14.

QB Josh Achtemichuk had a great game going 14 of 22 for 293 yards, 3 TD's, 1 INT and 2 Rushing TD's!

SB Josh Sorensen finally found the endzone hauling in 4 passes for 85 yards and 1 TD. 

Alex Rinehart and Tylor Johnson had the other TD catches. 

Jamie Blinkhorn ran double duty as a receiver and running back.  Blinkhorn had 2 Rushing TD's and a fumble against his brother, Wes, who plays for Sherwood Park.

Blinkhorn had 36 yards on the ground and 57 through the air.

Defensively, the Bucs made some HUGE mistakes with penalties and 2 blown coverages that lead directly to the 14 Renegades points.  However, after they settled down, they did pretty well. 

LB Braden Doupe had a MONSTER game with 6 solo and 7 assisted tackles! 

DB Jordan Willie added 6 solo, 2 assisted tackles to a SACK and a pass knockdown. 

LB Jeremy Makila was solid with 5 solo tackles and put pressure on the QB all night!

With the win the Bucs can do no worse than 6th place, which means the Bucs have

MADE THE PLAYOFFS

for the first time in 5 years!

The Bucs have the long weekend AS WELL AS the following weekend off, so their next action is Saturday August 14th against the always-tough Edmonton Stallions.  Game time is 4:00pm at Jasper Place Bowl in Edmonton. 

The first road game of the season was NOT kind to Bucs as they dropped an embarrassing 42-16 decision to the hometown Vandals in Lloydminster on Saturday afternoon.  A lackluster 1st quarter saw both teams struggle to get any yards with the Vandals taking a 7-0 lead on 2 FG's and a punt single with a strong wind at their backs.  The Bucs started off the second half with a punt single of their own to make it 7-1, then the wheels fell off...FAST!  Several 2 and outs or negative yardage for the Bucs resulted in poor field position that the Vandals took major advantage of.   Couple that with blown defensive coverages, forgotten assignments and poor tackling gave the Vandals FOUR touchdowns in the second quarter to make the score 35-1 at halftime. 

The Bucs settled down in the second half, allowing no points in the 3rd quarter and a gift TD from a bad snap/blocked punt to start the 4th quarter.  Then the Offence started to move late in the 4th as QB Josh Achtemichuk hit Tylor Johnson on a 20 yard TD strike (Tylor converted his own TD on the PAT), then hit WR Adam Donovan on a short 3 yard TD pass with FB Corey Pusey catching the 2-point convert.  But it was too little WAY too late as the Bucs drop to 1-4 on the season with their 3rd straight loss.

Offence:

QB Josh Achtemichuk 17 of 33 for 244 yards, 2 TD's, 2-point convert, 1 INT 2 Sacks. 

Achtemichuk also led all rushers with 49 yards on the ground.

Marc Bartolf 5 catches for 69 yards and 70 yards on 3 KO returns.

Defence:

LB Curtis Dreger 4 solo, 2 assisted tackles

DB Jordan Willie 1 solo, 4 assisted, 1 KD and 1/2 sack

The Bucs play their LAST HOME game of the season this coming Saturday July 24th as they host the expansion Sherwood Park Renegades 6:00pm at Great Chief Park.  It's FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT with TONS of prizes and goodies for our loyal fans! 

Despite giving up and early lead, the Bucs went punch for punch with the undefeated Calgary Wolfpack in a rainstorm on Saturday night to keep it close.  Well...punch for punch in the first half anyways.  With a halftime score of 33-25, the Bucs couldn't match the talent, size and experience of the Wolfpack in the second half and ended up on the losing side of a 59-31 score.  It would have been the THIRD game this season where the Bucs failed to score a point in the second half, except for a last-play-of-the-game touchdown pass from QB Josh Achtemichuk to SB Jamie Blinkhorn. 

While the Bucs did find some success with over 300 yards in offence, BRILLIANT kick return game and RB Ian Keetch running for THREE touchdowns ...they just couldn't find the endzone consistently, coming up with only 6 points on 3 trips inside the opponent's 5 yard line.

They didn't have an answer defensively either.  With several KEY starters missing, the Bucs allowed over 700 yards to be piled up by the powerful Wolfpack.  However DB Tylor Johnson had another productive game with 2 more interceptions on the year for 86 yards.

Offence:

QB Josh Achtemichuk 20 of 36 for 217 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs   

RB Ian Keetch 10 carries for 42 yards 3 TDs

SB Josh Sorensen 4 catches for 79 yards

Defence:

DB Andrew Block 5 solo, 5 assisted tackles

DB Joel Sather 2 solo, 2 assisted tackles, 3 knockdowns

 LB Todd Lewis 4 solo tackles

An entertaining first half that had several lead changes and some interesting plays, turned into a gong show of errors in the second half on route to a 26-13 loss.  With Buccaneers leading 3-0 and 10-6 in the first half, blown coverages gave the Calgary Gators a 20-13 lead by halftime.  With the game still every much undecided, The Bucs had several opportunities to tie the game or even take another lead.  However more costly penalties and mental errors snuffed out Bucs drives...while extending Gators drives.  Ultimately, the Bucs couldn't get out of their own way and stumbled to a 1-2 record with the Canada Day Bye Week on tap this weekend.

Despite several miscues and costly penalties, the Red Deer Buccaneers still managed to overpower the expansion Lancaster Legion by a 59-0 score Saturday night at Red Deer's Great Chief Park. Bucs QB Josh Achtemichuk had his way with the Legion secondary throwing for 308 yards, 6TD's, 0 Ints, 0 Sacks.  Achtemichuk also ran one in for a TD.

WR Adam Donovan had 4 catches for 135 yards and 3 TD's.

RB Ian Keetch had 78 yards on 6 carries.

Defensively, DT Kerry Lynch had 6 solo and 3 assisted tackles 3 for losses. LB Curtis Dreger had 3 solo and 9 assisted tackles as well as a forced fumble. 

It was a game of missed opportunities for the Red Deer  Buccaneers on Saturday night - losing to the visiting Grande Prairie Drillers 35-21 in their home opener.  With leads of 7-0 at the quarter, 21-7 at one point and 21-16 at the half, the Bucs couldn't finish the job and wasted 5 defensive turnovers. 

The Bucs Offence stepped it up early with a 14 yard TD run by tailback Kenton Poelzer to close the first quarter.  Quarterback Josh Achtemichuk ran another one in on a bootleg from 12 yards out and tailback Ian Keetch broke a few tackles to bully his way in from the 7 yard line.  Slotback Josh Sorensen set up most of the scores with HUGE catches in traffic.  Sorensen ended the day with 6 catches for 124 yards. 

Despite the large amount of turnovers, the Bucs defence couldn't figure out Drillers QB Nathan Aldred.  Aldred dissected the young Bucs secondary with ease in the second half.   

The Bucs have a bye week June 12 weekend, then right back at it AT HOME against the expansion Lancaster Legion on Saturday June 19th at 6:00pm at Great Chief Park.  See you there! 

Stats Story:

Achtemichuk: 9 of 18 for 167 yards, 0 TD's, 1 INT, 2 Sacks

Poelzer 5 carries for 59 yards, 1 TD

Keetch 10 carries for 53 yards and 1 TD. 

LB Adam Staniowski 4 solo and 5 assisted tackles including 1 for a loss. 

LB Curtis Dreger had 4 solos and 3 assisted including 1 for a loss. 

he 2010 Buccaneers Spring Camp wrapped up on a rainy, cold and windy Thursday evening.  A hearty bunch of players showed the coaches who the core of the team is with their hard work and dedication in terrible conditions.  Thursday was the last official day of Spring Camp 2010, and NOW the REAL work begins! 

Full equipment, full contact practices start on Tuesday! 

Also, now that spring camp is over, FULL PLAYER FEES are due, so pay up.  We have a month to decide who can do what and where the player will be on the depth chart.  The player will be on the BOTTOM of the chart if their fees are not paid up.

The Red Deer Buccaneers Football Club was a major part of the "Day in the Park - A Family Fundraising event in Lacombe".  The event was to give the community a chance to see what groups would benefit from the new Lacombe Athletic Park.  Several Buccaneers players were helping to run kids through football skills and drills.

Then the Bucs were at the "Night in the Park" a more cabaret style event with various CFL celebrities and the Grey Cup on hand!

It was a GREAT way for the Bucs to help out with a community event!  Check out our SCHEDULE PAGE for MORE events the Buccaneers will be attending in the future!

Thanks to all those players who showed up to support their team! 

Check out MORE photos from the event on our PHOTO PAGE.

The Red Deer Buccaneers Football Club's 2010 Annual General Meeting and Registration Night was held on Tuesday night in the Red Deer Lodge and it held some BIG Announcements!

The Bucs introduced TWO new Coaches to the crowd. 

Kyle Sedgwick will take over as Offensive Coordinator and Tim Burris will run the Defensive Coordinator position! 

Both men have LONG resumes of football playing & coaching experience including multiple national championships at the Junior and CIS levels! 

Their experience, enthusiasm and work ethic will reap major rewards to the Buccaneers football program. 

Each of them will also have the title of Co-Head Coach.

The 2010 Spring Camp Indoor Schedule was set as well as player fees, road trip information and such. 

We offered our athletes some supplemental injury insurance c/o Garnet Rambaut.  It's a pretty good idea.

We also met our official Team Chiropractor, Dr. Teresa Dumas, who will work in conjunction with Melanie Tuck-Hoppins - our long-time Chief Athletic Therapist - to keep our players on the field longer. 

Spring Camp Schedules, Registration forms, Sponsorship Packages and more will be offered on this website soon!

For further information, contact Dave Hanni at 403-341-5608 or e-mail reddeerbucs@shaw.ca. 

The 2010 AFL AGM was held on Saturday evening with some interesting developments!  

Two new teams were accepted as expansion franchises in Edmonton and Sherwood Park to bring our league's total number of teams up to NINE! 

This means we will have BALANCED schedule of playing each team once for a total of eight games.  Four home games and four away games.

the Bucs Open the 2010 Season at HOME vs the