While the end result from Friday's season opener was a 14 - 6 win against the L.P. Miller Bears up in Nipawin, there was little satisfaction in the Humboldt Collegiate Institute's Mohawks camp afterwards. "Our kids played hard," offered head coach Shaun Gardiner, "And we can't fault them for that effort but we made a lot of mistakes." In fact, the Mohawks had two touchdowns called back due to a penalty on a sweltering hot day. "We could have become demoralized," said assistant coach Brian Hinz of the heat and large number of penalties, "But we didn't. We just kept plugging away and our tackling and blocking and special teams, in the end, were just better than theirs."
The first half was scoreless as a spirited and physical Nipawin squad held Humboldt in check. The Mohawks broke the tie in the third quarter on a seven yard run by Jonathan Zimroz, with Dallas Stadnyk and Connor Guillet opening up running room at the point of attack. Nipawin's offence was mostly stifled until they were able to put together a protracted drive halfway through the fourth quarter. A quarterback sneak on third and goal from the one put the Bears on the board but a blocked PAT kept the lead in favour of the visitors. "Their quarterback is a good athlete and we lost containment a couple of times after he started to hurt us with his legs. You know, sometimes a defence thinks they have things under control and then a series happens that knocks you off balance, and it takes them a while to get their equilibrium back," stated defensive coach Cory Popoff. The Mohawk defenders did finish strong, including a key interception delivered by Devin Berger. Mathew Ortman willed a late score across the goal line from two yards out after quarterback Harris Ford took the offence on a time consuming and deliberate drive in the last minutes. With Zimroz's second extra point of the game, Humboldt went ahead 14 - 6.
