The 2025 U18 Team Alberta will be remembered as the “Comeback Kings” after rallying for a second straight playoff game to capture their first national championship since 2007.
It took 18 years, but Alberta has finally added another Football Canada Cup title to its previous wins in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2007.
This year’s national U18 championship was held in Antigonish, N.S., and Cochrane Cobra receiver Tyler Clazie was among the players helping bring the title home.
Alberta punched its ticket to the final with a dramatic semifinal win over Quebec on Thursday. Trailing 27-11 heading into the fourth quarter, Alberta tied the game with 1:20 remaining, then sealed a 33-27 victory on a 65-yard punt return touchdown by Aaron Oboh of Calgary’s Notre Dame High School with just 14 seconds left.
RELATED STORY
Sunday’s gold-medal game against Ontario followed a similar script. Alberta fell behind 21-0 early, then chipped away at the lead. They still trailed 31-21 with just over two minutes remaining when Matias Pisa of George McDougall High School in Airdrie nailed a 34-yard field goal with 2:09 left.
Joel Thorpe of Edmonton’s Harry Ainlay High School powered into the end zone on a five-yard run with four seconds left to tie the game at 31-31 and force overtime.
Ontario opened the extra frame with a 47-yard field goal, but Alberta answered with four consecutive carries by Thorpe, the last one ending in the end zone to clinch a 37-34 win and a long-awaited national title.
The national championship was hosted from July 12 to 20 in Antigonish, N.S. Alberta trampled over Manitoba 52-7 in their opening game to advance to the playoff round.
Alberta has been knocking on the door in recent years, earning several silver and bronze medals. They last appeared in the final in 2022, falling to Saskatchewan.