They won the Ice Bowl earlier this season and now, the Tamarack Titans have done the double.
Bogdan Stanciu/NNSL photo
The Titans are your 2018 Yk Arena Football League champions after defeating the Monkey Tree Regulators in the final on Saturday at the Fieldhouse by a score of 46-26. It's the fourth time the Titans have hoisted the league crown.
Travis Schindel of the Titans said it was a case of coming through at the right time.
“The first half was closer but we managed to open things up in the second half,” he said. “Morgan (Gallagher, quarterback) was doing his usual thing with hitting all his spots and finding the open guys and they did the rest.”
With Gallagher doing his thing at the pivot, the defence was making sure not much got past them, Schindel added.
“We were all on with grabbing the flags, not too many guys managed to slip through,” he said.
The Titans got through to the final thanks to a 39-16 win over the Kasteelers in one of the semifinals while the Regulators downed the Irish Seniors in the other contest.
Schindel said the semifinal match-up was an intense game, even if it didn't look like it on the scoreboard.
“It was sort of similar to the final where we managed to get things really going in the second half,” he said. “Mike Reddy played great at quarterback for them and it would have been a lot closer had they not dropped a few passes but Morgan was locked in.”
The championship for the Titans was a nice way to finish off the season, said Schindel, but there is a worry about the future of the league in his opinion.
There were just four teams playing in this year's competition and he's hopeful there could be some sort of growth.
“Hopefully, we can get some more players to come out,” he said. “It wasn't a terribly robust competition this season and we just need a bit of life breathed back into the league. Hash Manickum has done an outstanding job as a one-man band of sorts for the past eight years running things. If we lose it, that means a whole bunch of time is lost. It's a great way for people to come out on a Friday and stay active and have fun.”
The Titans plan on coming back to defend their title and it's all thanks to their sponsor, who has been helping out the team from day one.
“Tamarack has been tremendous to us over the last six years, especially considering league fees aren't terribly cheap,” said Schindel.