For the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders their third annual Friday Night Lights game was the chance for redemption and the continuation of an undefeated regular season. In last year's FNL game the Raiders fell short on a last minute drive losing to the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones before eventually heading to the MJHSFL Championship Game.
This year it would be the Weyburn Eagles trying to spoil the Raiders Friday Night coming out party and end their undefeated season. An annual top team in the province led by Dwyane Abel, the Eagles have a rivalry dating back to their days in the Regina Intercollegiate Football League with the Raiders and on Friday it would be put on the line for another year.
For Raiders head coach going against a close friend in Abel it would be in his mind the team's biggest test to date. "So far we have won games in the first half so going against the Eagles and a coach I really respect in Coach Abel this was a game I thought would define if we were a true contender this season."
After a close first quarter, big receptions from Alex Popoff and a long touchdown run from Zak Kais would once again lift the Orange who scored two touchdowns in the second quarter to end the first half up 14-0.
Kais scored the first touchdown of the game before Popoff followed up with a big touchdown to end the first half with a big play that killed the momentum of an Eagles defense that was game to hold the Raiders to their lowest point total of 2013.
In the second half Popoff would deliver the dagger with another long catch and run in another 100 yard performance for the rookie wideout. This time Popoff would be stopped inside the Eagles 10 yard line, but David Balysky would score on a read option run to make it 21-0.
Weyburn would score a touchdown, but the Raiders would hold on for a 28-7 victory to move to 4-0 on the season with just two games left on the schedule. Eagles coach Abel was pleased with his team's effort and credited Sharpe for building a solid 2013 team.
"Me and Roby Sharpe are good friends and I brought him on as a Senior Bowl assistant before so I couldn't be more happy for him to see him have a great team and I am proud of my players effort tonight."
Abel said the game was hard to prepare for due to the lack of lights at Weyburn's field, but said that his team all wanted to step up and perform in a special experience for the team.
"It was our first night game since playing in the RIFL where we played at Taylor Field so for most of our players it was their first time playing at night and they seemed to step up and were excited," says Abel.
Big plays eventually were the downfall of the Eagles on Friday night, head coach Roby Sharpe gave the credit to his three explosive offensive weapons in Balysky, Kais and Popoff in offensive coordinator Jason Boyda's offense.
"We have a lot of playmakers this year and we always have traditionally been a defense based team so with the ability to put points on the scoreboard with a lot of talented offensive guys we have been able to be in the positions to win football games so far this season" says Sharpe.
Next up for the Raiders is a road game with Estevan on Thursday before a road game with currently undefeated Moose Jaw on October 15 in their final regular season game. with Estevan nearly upsetting Central.
Sharpe doesn't want to overlook Estevan, but he knows with a quick turnaround of four days between games that the battle of the MJHSFL's two undefeated teams is circled on the calendar.
"We obviously need to get the job done against Estevan to help out with finishing first so that is mission one, but avenging our championship loss in Moose Jaw is obviously our next mission after that."
Yorkton is on the road for the rest of the MJHSFL regular season.
