The Yorkton Regional High School Jr. Raiders were coming into their Week Three match up in the Regina Minor Football League's Bantam division coming off their first win of 2013 on the road the Jr. Orange were riding high off of their 44-32 win over the Sun Devils, but were to be challenged by a Stampeders team that featured a running back/fullback tandem that was very physically imposing for Jr. football.
That rushing tandem seemed to be all that the Regina visitors needed on Saturday afternoon as despite a valiant effort it seemed as the Stampeders rolled up the long distance touchdown runs early and often in the first half despite the Raiders attempts to bring down the much larger Stamps backs.
Despite the demoralizing physical dominance of the Stampeders rushing attack, Yorkton refused to give up at any point of their Sunday affair with the Raiders offense managing to put up two scores in the first half to keep things in reach as the first half came to an end with Yorkton down just three scores as the Stampeders led 30-12.
In the second half Yorkton's defence would step up considerably, Carter Pawliw would snag one of two YRHS interceptions in the second half as things started to improve on both sides of the ball as the game wore on. Rhythm on the offence would be an issue as injuries crept into play with the Orange having to employ an offensive linemen as a wideout on Sunday with their roster depth giving them a challenge.
Still there was no quit in the Raiders no matter how many points the Stampeders put onto the board, with the young players on both sides of the ball making plays despite not putting as many points on the board as needed in the game.
In the fourth quarter the Raiders offense improved to close out the game with Nick Payne leading the Jr. Raiders into the red zone, scoring on the final drive of the game with a touchdown connection to end Yorkton's weekend on a high note.
In the end it would be a 52-19 win for the Stampeders, but for the Jr. Raiders coaching staff the game was a sign that the team was headed in the right direction. "I think that we showed a lot of promise in our own game against a team that is probably the best team in our league and I think that given our injuries that all of us are pretty happy with the effort we put onto the football field today," Jr. Raider coach Jason Payne stated after the game.
Payne pointed out that the Jr. Raiders were dealing with a handful of injuries on Saturday, something that presented a challenge. "We were teaching a lot of guys on the fly, including putting an offensive line played as a wide receiver and in the Regina Minor Football League preventing players from playing both offense and defense you can't just plug guys in both ways so when guys go down it really challenges a team."
In other Yorkton Minor Football action the Atom Gridders defeated the Regina Allouettes 33-19 to improve to 3-0 on the season in the 2013 RMF Atom football division. The result had Atom Gridders coach Jason Boyda beaming about his young ballplayers for the third consecutive week. "We are starting to see that our players are hungry to play football and bring a full effort to each game that we play and every minute that they are on the field they are playing with passion and wanting to play football and play it the right way which is huge."
Boyda also stated that while winning is important in developing a team, fun is the main focus. "We like to win because winning is ultimately one of the funnest things about sports and you can see it when the kids make a big play or win a big game, but we also make sure every day to remind the players that at the end of the day it is about having fun," says Boyda who mentions that the team has a fun activity practice once a week.
YMF teams are on the road next weekend.
