It has been a long time waiting for the North Battleford Comprehensive High School Vikings senior football team to play in a championship game.
That wait is over, as the Vikings won their semifinal game Wednesday in Saskatoon against the Marion Graham Falcons.
"It wasn't pretty, we basically pitted our line and our running game against their front seven," said Vikings head coach Jamie Sommerfeld. "In a game like that anything can happen."
The Vikings expected it to be a messy game of ground and pound football and they did that. Tanner Craig led the team's offence with 22 carries for 152 yards.
Also in the backfield was Austin Heintz, who made it difficult for the Marion Graham defence all night.
Heintz put the Vikings in front with a one-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Later in the quarter, Craig rushed for a four-yard touchdown. Brian Hodgins nailed both converts and the Vikings led 14-0 heading into the second quarter.
Marion Graham responded with a field goal in the second quarter from 16 yards out, but Hodgins kicked two field goals for the Vikings from 20 and 11 yards to give NBCHS a 20-3 lead at half time.
"We did what we had to coming out of the gate," said Sommerfeld. "Typically we have been slow starters throughout the season. We said we have to come out and jump these guys and our offence came out with two monstrous drives for majors. We physically, I think, dominated the line of play, in the first half anyways."
Dating back to the regular season, the Vikings surrendered just three points in the last four quarters played against Marion Graham, as they shut them out in a 35-20 loss in the second half in the game back in September.
The Falcons found the end zone in the third quarter when Jared Braun ran in from six yards and Whiting kicked the convert to make it a 20-10 game.
The Vikings conceded a safety in the fourth quarter making in 20-12, but that was as close at Marion Graham would get.
Sommerfeld commented that there weren't as many turnovers in the game as he expected and that the Vikings had to make their own luck.
"We have been talking for years about building this program back up," said Sommerfeld. "We have been saying this is the group that will do it for us. They have turned into winners, they have figured that out."
The Vikings win pushes them through to the city championship game against Bishop James Mahoney in Saskatoon. BJM beat Evan Hardy in the other semifinal game Wednesday in Saskatoon by a score of 21-0.
"They are going to see a totally different team," said Sommerfeld of their opponents who beat them 58-0 in the first game of the season. "It isn't even close to the same type of kids they saw in that first game."
BJM's defence is well-suited to stop the Vikings run, but Sommerfeld says they will make some adjustments in the short time they have to practice and prepare for the Saints.
The message to the players during this week of practise is this, "It is playoffs, anything can happen this time of year."
"I want to go out and physically dominate these guys. When we physically dominate teams we end up on top," said Sommerfeld.
The championship game is scheduled for Monday at Gordie Howe Bowl, but Sommerfeld said there is a possibility the game will move to Tuesday and will be played on the turf at Griffith Stadium.
