The Luther Lions paid a visit to Century Field on Friday for the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders home opener.
Despite a gritty effort by the Raiders, the Lions rode the effort of an opportunistic de-fence to a 20-3 victory.
Luther started off quickly in the first quarter -- blocking a Raider punt and converting the turnover into six points with a 20-yard hitch pass from quarterback Spencer Mack to running back Nick Schroeder.
Not to be outdone, linebacker YRHS Brennan Peleshytyk recovered a Lions fumble on their own 10-yard line minutes into the second quarter.
The Raiders turned the short field into three points as kicker Devyn Nixon split the uprights from 17 yards away.
As the clock continued to tick Yorkton Regional began to seize momentum.
Raider lineman Tyler Nagy continued the defensive onslaught with a thunderous hit on Lions QB Mack - resulting in another two-and-out.
"We were beating them up, to be honest, in the first half," YRHS Head Coach Roby Sharpe points out.
Following a blocked field goal and recovery by Yorkton's Michael Nagy, the game headed into halftime with Luther ahead 6-3.
Sharpe was encouraged by his team's performance at the half. In fact, save for a couple of missed opportunities, it could have been the Raiders who took a lead into the halftime break.
"To be honest, it should've been 3-0 (for us) going into the half," he explains.
The third quarter started eerily similar to the first two.
The Raider defence continued to fly all over the field while the offence struggled to string a drive together.
Huge hits by Raiders Dustin Chase and Brett Geysen brought the crowd to its feet as Luther continued to be chased all over the field.
However, the Lions finally broke through with a 16-yard TD run by running back Remington Winter. The touchdown, coming with just under two minutes left in the quarter, extended the Luther lead to ten and put the Raiders on their heels.
As the fourth quarter started to wear on, the Raiders offence was unable to bridge the gap.
Luther's QB Mack finally put the game out of reach with six minutes left on a three-yard QB sneak to make it 20-3.
The final quarter wasn't a banner one for YRHS though it did represent the conclusion of a solid day by lineman Brett Geysen and 'backer Dustin Chase.
Starting quarterback Jake Prybylski continued to be a warrior for the Raiders throughout the afternoon - whether it be on QB draws or running down special teams plays.
Knowing that he has a young team, Sharpe is exercising patience with this group.
That said, Sharpe knows that his guy's can play at a higher level.
"It's a little bit frustrating because I know we can play better," he laments.
The efforts of some of the Raiders young guys was not lost on the Head Coach. Sharpe says that he was pleased with the big hits from his lineman and linebackers.
"We had a lot of bright spots because we have a lot of good players," he indicates.
With a couple of challenging games up ahead, the Raiders coaching staff knows that improvement is paramount.
"Obviously we've got to get our offence moving the ball - because without any offence it's hard to get any points," Sharpe says, "We got a young team, these guys are going to get better and we're just going to keep working with them."
