In just their third football season, the John Paul II Crusaders are experiencing some growing pains, but showing signs of good things to come.
JPII was taking on the Warman Wolverines Thursday afternoon and a tough first half cost the Crusaders in the end.
The Wolverines pounced early, not giving JPII a chance to get their legs under them. Running back Simon Epp ran the ball 75 yards for a touchdown on two runs to start the game. A botched snap prevented the extra point, but Warman was still up 6-0 after just two minutes.
The Crusaders ran the ball twice on their first series and couldn't find any holes, leaving them in a punting situation.
Once again, Warman found success in running the ball on their second drive of the game. Tyler Hume scampered 50 yards to the house with seven minutes left and an extra point conversion made it 13-0.
The Crusaders struggled to get the offence going in the first quarter, but the defence picked up the slack and shut down Warman for the rest of the quarter.
However, the second quarter started the same way as the first. This time it was the quarterback for Warman, Josh Misskey, who made JPII pay. He ran the ball 35 yards to the endzone and increased the lead to 20-0. Shortly after, a long punt return gave the Wolverines' offence the ball on the Crusaders' four-yard line and they made no mistake. Warman ran the ball twice, with the second going in for the score. Once again it was Misskey. The Wolverines attempted the two-point conversion to make it an even 28-point lead, but couldn't execute.
Five minutes later, after JPII was unable to make things click offensively, Misskey threw his first touchdown pass of the game. Despite running the ball for most of the game, the Wolverines elected to throw from inside the five-yard line and Misskey found receiver Cole Balazsi wide open in the end zone. The extra point was good and Warman took a 33-0 lead into half time.
JPII stepped up their play on defence big time in the second half. With one minute left in the third quarter, Epp caught a touchdown pass from Misskey, but that was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect final half of play.
The offence, however, couldn't handle the pass rush from Warman. Quarterback Tyler Wasmuth scrambled as much as he could, but was still sacked five times in the game.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, his scrambling paid off. Wasmuth ended up running the ball 50 yards on a broken play to cut the lead down to 40-6. With a little more than three minutes left, the Crusaders had little chance at a comeback and neither team scored afterwards.
It's the second loss in two games for JPII after dropping their first in Martensville 24-18. Similar to Thursday's contest, the Crusaders' defence was lights out in the second half to Martensville.
The Crusaders have shown the ability to play well enough to win and, as the season moves forward and they improve their first half play, the wins should start flowing in. The team is back in action Friday in Delisle with the next home game Oct. 10 against Kindersley.
