The John Paul II Collegiate Crusaders fielded a young football team this year and were able to compete game in and game out, which head coach Bruce Yockey believes will translate to a stronger 2014 season.
The Kindersley Kobras took on JPII Thursday evening at Beaver Lion's Stadium, in the Crusaders' final game of the season.
The 23-14 Kobras victory meant a winless year for the Crusaders, but Yockey sees a bright future ahead.
"We're young, we'll be set up well for next year and the year after. Our Grade 12s have worked hard this year, no doubt about it, we just didn't have the experience we've had the last couple years," he said.
The contrast between the team that got beat up in a September preseason game against Meadow Lake compared to Thursday's performance is night and day. A big reason for the improvement was the outstanding defence and ability to make open-field tackles often not seen in high school football.
"That's been one of the big improvements for sure. From the start of the year until now, we've been working on those basic things and the defence did play really well. Probably if we could have kept our offence on the field a little more and gave those guys a little bit of rest, they get tired towards the end of the game," said Yockey. "They played awesome and they gave us a chance to win and that's all you can ask for."
The Kobras' offence was close to invisible for almost the entire first half. The strong Crusaders' defence was highlighted by a couple Kobras drives in the second quarter where the team had good field position and looked poised to score. The first, JPII had back-to-back sacks forcing the Kobras to punt from midfield. The return was fumbled, giving Kindersley the ball deep in John Paul II territory.
With seven minutes left, the Crusaders had a huge red zone stop. Then, with three minutes left, Kindersley had the ball inside the 10-yard line. The Crusaders made three consecutive stops to get the ball back. JPII was 27 seconds away from a first-half shutout when Josh Livingstone found Jared Thornton for a 30-yard connection. The two hooked up again to complete the two-point conversion and Kindersley went into half-time with an 8-0 lead.
The running back one-two punch of Jacob Stynsky and Gavin Garden led the Crusaders' rejuvenated second-half offence down the field multiple times in the third quarter, but couldn't quite find the end zone. With Kindersley worried about the run on defence, quarterback Tyler Wasmuth showed off his arm, completing a pass to Jared Schmidt at the one-yard line. The Crusaders got stuffed on three consecutive plays, but a facemask penalty gave them a first down and they capitalized. Garden sprinted outside on a pitch and ran it to the house. They missed the two-point conversion with 10 minutes left in the game.
Then the Kobras' offence broke out. Thornton was on the receiving end of a 30-yard flea flicker in the endzone. They added two points and jumped ahead 16-6.
The Crusaders fumbled on the ensuing drive and Kindersley once again took advantage. Thornton caught his third touchdown, this time a shoe-string, 15-yard reception with 40 seconds left.
Down 23-6 in the final minute, Wasmuth scrambled away from a pair of defenders and threw it to Garden, who ran 75 yards down the sideline. The Crusaders then recovered an onside kick, but it was too late and they dropped the game 23-14.
