The Yorkton Regional High School Raiders football team is off to the provincial championship.
A very close semi-final game last Saturday saw the Raiders come out victorious over the Greenall Griffins in Regina. The score was 24-22.
“It was a crazy, crazy football game,” offered Raiders head coach Roby Sharpe.
It was the closest game of the entire season for the Raiders, who dominated the Moose Jaw High School Football League. This was the first game that they’ve really been tested.
“We scored early, which was awesome, but they just kept hanging around,” said Sharpe.
By half time, the Raiders had a 10-6 lead over the Griffins. Sharpe said the half time speech in the locker room was given with the purpose of calming the team down.
The second half would be another long and close battle. Sharpe credited the other team for being a strong match up against his Raiders.
“They were extremely tough. I mean we pounded them. We hit those guys and a couple of times I thought they weren’t going to get back up. But they’d slowly get up, get into the huddle, and make the next play,” he said.
In the end it was the Raiders who were victorious. The Raiders had possession of the ball in the final seconds, and quarterback Jordin Rusnack took a knee to run down the clock.
“Those guys dug deep. I’ve never seen high school players play that hard. And the other team, too,” added Sharpe.
Moving on without Mandziuk
While the win was a huge accomplishment, it didn’t come without a loss. Raiders’ safety/receiver, and star player, Matthew Mandziuk dislocated his shoulder in the first quarter of play. This means he will be out of the championship game this weekend.
Sharpe said they’ve got a team full of talented players, and different weapons that they’ll use, but he knows the loss of Mandziuk to his line up is huge.
“We have to move forward, we just have to forget it,” the coach said. “But he’s not just one of the best players in the province, he’s probably one of the top ten high school football players in the country. He’s an unbelievable athlete.”
With Mandziuk out of three quarters of last Saturday’s game, Sharpe had to rely on some younger players to fill the hole.
“We said someone’s got to step up. A young guy who really stepped up was Tyler Harasamyuik. He played safety, and he played really well. So that helped us,” he said.
This week during practices, the coaching staff will work on filling Mandziuk’s role for the upcoming game.
“How do we replace him? We don’t. We just have to shuffle stuff around.”
While Mandziuk stands out on offense with his incredible speed and ability to catch almost anything, Sharpe said he’s just as important, if not more so, on the defensive line.
“On offense, we couldn’t go vertical anyway, cause Jordin’s hands were frozen and there was a little bit of a wind,” Sharpe said regarding Saturday’s game. “But on defense, [Mandziuk] is crazy. So we lose him there and it’s almost worse than on offense.”
Sharpe said that understandably, the grade 12 player is crushed to be missing Saturday’s championship game – on the field at least. But he’ll be there on the sidelines to cheer for his teammates.
The Raiders will face North Battleford, who were the winners of the Saskatoon league.
North Battleford beat Tommy Douglas in their league championship 26-15. In the regular season, they finished in first place in the league with a 5-2 record.
The football game itself will be a challenge, and the weather will make it that much harder.
At time of print, the projected temperature for Saturday in North Battleford -8 degrees.
But with ten wins under their belt and just one more to go, the Raiders don’t plan to let a little snow and ice get in their way of their championship trophy.
“Just being prepared for the weather conditions, and keeping their hands warm is the main thing,” said Sharpe. “We’ve gotta be tough.”
