Turnovers – they are a football team's worst nightmare.
The Steinbach Regional Secondary School saw way too many of them Friday night at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg.
St. Paul's turned a fumble, an interception and a loss of downs into 21 points as the Crusaders downed the SRSS 30-6 in the Winnipeg High School Football League's Kas Vidruk “AA” Division championship game.
“We lost the turnover battle, we lost the big play battle and we lost the penalties,” said Sabres head coach Jamie Peters. “It's pretty tough to win when you dig yourselves into a big hole like that but the boys battled hard and they tried and it just unfortunately wasn't our best game.”
The Crusaders struck early as SRSS running back Patrick Maendel lost the handle on the football and St. Paul's defensive back Shae Weekes scooped up the fumble and returned the ball to the Sabres two-yard line. Two plays later Morgan Wookes bulldozed into the end zone.
The Sabres offense started moving the ball late in the second quarter and were in position to get some points on the board but quarterback Braden Saindon's long bomb was picked off in the Crusaders end zone with 73 seconds left.
St. Paul's made the SRSS pay for that mistake as quarterback Riley Naujoks hit Bryce Stubbings with a 10-yard slant and the Crusaders receiver ran untouched 81 yards for a touchdown with 39 seconds remaining in the half.
Just like that the Sabres were trailing 16-0.
“They made some pretty big plays and it was kind of a gut-shot to us,” said Sabres linebacker Brydon Watts. “We encouraged each other, keep our heads up and keep playing football. We were out there to play football so kept playing football and we kept being the defense that we were all season and we held them the best we could.”
Both teams failed to get on the board in the third quarter.
The Sabres scoring drought finally came to an end three minutes into the fourth quarter when wide receiver Leo Sawatzky hauled in a 45-yard touchdown pass from Saindon.
“St. Paul's has a fantastic defense,” said Sawatzky. “We did pull off big plays. They're not unbeatable. Tonight just wasn't our night.”
The extra point was no good and the SRSS was back in the game trailing just 16-6.
The 10 point deficit was as close as the Sabres got.
The Crusaders bounced back on their next possession as Weekes took a swing pass and went 74 yards for a touchdown.
The 10 point deficit was now 17.
The Sabres turned the ball over on downs and Wookes scored his second touchdown of the night on a one-yard plunge with 1:34 left.
Soon after it was the Crusaders who were celebrating a 30-6 victory and Steinbach Regional's fifth football season was over.
“When we look back on this season in a couple of days, it definitely was a great year and there were a lot of successes we had,” said coach Peters. “We're graduating a heck of a group of seniors – 22 players – a lot of them three-year players and it's going to be sad to see these guys leave. It's going to be good to see the new players step up and fill those roles. That's what high school sports are all about.”
photos courtesy Paul Reimer
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