The Estevan Century 21 peewee Chargers two-year grudge match with the Moose Jaw Vikings will come to a head this weekend.
The Chargers (3-2-1) played the Vikings (3-2-1) to a 0-0 draw at Elks Field on Friday night with a coveted second-place finish in the Moose Jaw Minor Football League (MJMFL) standings and subsequent home field advantage in the playoff quarter-finals on the line. With the tie and a Moose Jaw Mustangs (3-3) win over the Weyburn Eagles (3-3) on Saturday, the Chargers end up with the third seed heading into the playoffs meaning they will once again travel to Moose Jaw for the post-season tilt.
The Mustangs win eliminated the Eagles from the playoffs and set them up with a first-versus-fourth matchup against the Weyburn Ravens (6-0). The winners of both quarter-final games will meet in the MJMFL championship at Elks Field on Oct. 28.
Jason Bresciani, head coach of the Chargers, said the 0-0 tie against the Vikings was a battle in the trenches between both team’s defences that continually managed to freeze any offensive momentum from the opposing side. He said the only time in the game when an offence pressured from the red zone came thanks to two defensive penalties on their behalf that moved the Vikings onto their one-yard line.
“We stopped them three plays in a row,” said Bresciani. “We just did our job and knew what they were going to do and stopped it.”
Bresciani said the game also featured a trick fumblerooski play courtesy of the Vikings that even had the Chargers coaching staff cheering. He said the Vikings centre snapped the ball to the quarterback as usual on the play, but the QB then put the pigskin on the ground before faking a move to a side of the field with another player then picking up the ball and running it to the open side.
“All the coaches were just excited to see kids executing that,” he said. “It was awesome.”
The Chargers 0-0 tie against the Vikings follows a 20-19 win over the club at Elks Field last season. Bresciani said the focus in practice heading in is to work on blocking, speed coming off the snap, tackling and just being mentally prepared for another close game.
“I think both sides are going to tweak up a couple plays, but I mean we’ll just get focused and go have some fun.”
