It was quite a season, a wild, victorious ride as the Sacred Heart High School (SHHS) Senior Saints ran up an unprecedented 7-2 season in the East Central Nine Man Football League. The Saints ran up a five game winning streak before falling to Lumsden. They faced and handily defeated their Highway 10 rivals the Melville Cobras in the first round of the playoffs then went on to do the same to Maple Creek in the quarter finals.
All good things come to an end. The wild ride ended at home where the Saints squared off against the defending provincial champs, the Delisle Rebels, Saturday afternoon in the provincial semi-final contest. After the dust settled, the Rebels emerged as 33-2 winners to advance to the provincial championship against Humboldt. Sacred Heart was left looking ahead to next season.
Saints head coach Trent Senger admits he would have liked to see a different ending to the season, but says it was a great season for his team. He's says he's proud of the boys who now know what a really, really good team looks like. "I think we're really good but they have that extra 'really' in there on us," he declares.
Senger says the Saints knew in advance the Rebels had a strong defense which would give them some trouble.
"They have seven athletes on that defense. It's really tough to isolate your blocking," he points out.
Delisle also has six athletes on its offense, Senger notes. With the Rebels' defense shutting down Yorkton's offense, their offense was going to score, he reports, which they did.
The Saints held the Rebels to a 9-2 edge in the first half of the game. "In the second half they just got rolling and there wasn't a whole lot we could do," Senger admits.
Unfortunately for the home team, their star running back, Preston Liebrecht who recorded nine touchdowns in the two previous playoff games, injured his knee early in the second half which put a definite crimp in the Saints' offense.
Senger says Liebrecht took a lot of shots in the game. The Rebels had two players shadowing his every move in the first half, Senger points out. "They were very well prepared for us today," he comments.
The plan was to keep the game close early on, as the Saints typically have played a stronger second half this season. "We've outscored our opposition in the second half every game this year. We were hoping to keep it close in the first half and then let our condition go in the second half."
The Delisle Rebels just had too many weapons in the second half for the plan to work, Senger admits. "They're a very good football team," he obsereves.
Looking ahead to next season, Senger believes the Saints will be a stronger team next year. They will lose four defensive starters, including Cody Leclerc, Nathan Ortynsky, Dakota German, and Travis Inglis.
Offensively they will lose Jon Bell, but Travis Buzinski has shown that he is ready to assume the quarterback position. Graduating along with Bell this year will be Morgan Giroux, Brian Lubiniecki and Ryan Shumay. Running back Liebrecht will return along with three or four other promising back-up threats.
"It was a heck of a ride," Senger sums up the current season in closing.
