The Martinsville Saints just couldn't hold onto the football against the John Paul II Crusaders Friday night.
The statisticians counted eight Saints turnovers in the game - four interceptions, a fumble and three third-down gambles that failed - en route to a much-needed 20-13 win for the Crusaders in nine-man football action.
The win moved the Crusaders to 2-3 in the league. Had they lost, their playoff hopes would have been down the drain, but now they can clinch a playoff spot and finish the season at .500 if they beat Meadow Lake in the regular season finale this week.
The Crusaders started the game on a promising note. A pass caught by Justin Johanneson for a touchdown put the Crusaders up 7-0 in the first. A field goal extended their lead to 10-0.
But two Martensville touchdowns put the Crusaders in a 13-10 hole by the half, a deficit that could have been even deeper had Martensville not missed an extra point.
The Saints relied on the running of Peter Kuxhaus and Spencer Fitch for much of the game. Both scored the touchdowns for the Saints, but the Crusaders defence rose to the challenge in the second half.
A TD pass from Nathan Eckel to Calvin Perepeljuk midway through the third put the Crusaders on top to stay midway through the third quarter.
A Trenten Clarke interception put the Crusaders deep into Martensville territory at the 21 but they were unable to move much further and settled for a 20-13 lead after three quarters.
The most spectacular play of the game came late in the fourth quarter when Tevyn Williams picked off a Morgan Avery throw deep in the Crusaders end and ran it back deep into Saints' territory, almost scoring a touchdown. Unfortunately, a Crusader penalty for an illegal block after the pick forced the team back to mid-field, but it put them in prime position to run time off the clock. A final drive by the Saints came to nothing and the Crusaders survived 20-13.
Head coach Bruce Yockey pointed to William's pick as the turning of the game. "He ran out of gas, I thought he was going to make it to the end zone," he said.
Yockey was very happy with the clutch must-win performance by the Crusaders. "We were playing for our lives, we needed this to stay in the playoff hunt," said Yockey. "We bent but we didn't break, our defence held us in and our offence gave us points when we needed."
He pointed to Dayne Iverson's great game at linebacker for the Crusaders, contributing with two intercetions, and also pointed to Tyler Cockburn's play and the rest of the line. Yockey also pointed to Nathan Eckel's play at quarterback as another positive.
The coach credited the defence to contributing to the turnovers and said it would have been nice to capitalize some more by putting more points on the board.
Still, all that really counted for the coach was a Crusaders victory. "A win's a win."
