After two wins to start the season, the John Paul II Crusaders football team saw their momentum come to a screeching halt Thursday.
The Crusaders fell behind early and couldn’t recover on their home field as they dropped a 36-8 decision to the Martensville Royals.
“We did a lot of things really poorly on both sides of the ball today,” Crusaders head coach Bruce Yockey said. “We just couldn’t seem to gain any momentum.
“If we did get something going we would take a poor penalty or fumble the ball away. Martensville played a very strong physical game and we didn’t answer back.”
There were a couple of bright spots for the Crusaders, who now have a 2-1 record for the season.
Running back Jacob Stynsky ripped off a 55-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to get his team within ten points, while the defence kept the Crusaders in the game until late in the second half.
“I thought our defence played really well and they held us in there for quite a while when the score was 16-8,” Yockey said.
“They held strong for us but we just couldn’t get anything going on offence to turn the game around.”
Quarterback Ethan Moran had a strong afternoon for the Royals (2-1) as he threw for two touchdowns and also ran into the end zone on two occasions.
“We didn’t play last week due to problems with officials so we came out a little bit flat, even though we got up on them by 16 points,” Royals head coach Lyle Evanisky said.
“We were slow and sluggish and took a lot of penalties early but then we started to get things rolling. We’ve got some good size on our lines and winning the line of scrimmage paid off for our guys today.”
The Crusaders will look to bounce back next Thursday when they host the Delisle Rebels at 4 p.m.
“We’re not playing anyone easy anymore here,” Yockey said. “This wasn’t our best effort here but we will get it turned around.”
