It will be a great day for football on Thursday at Max Clunie Field.
For the first time in recent memory, both high school football programs in Prince Albert will take part in a doubleheader, as the St. Mary Marauders will host the 1-1 Mount Royal Mustangs at 4 p.m. and the Carlton Crusaders will entertain the 1-1 Walter Murray Marauders at 6:30 p.m.
“It’s going to be a cool day at the field, especially with this being that something that hasn’t happened since I’ve started coaching here,” Marauders head coach Curt Hundeby said.
“I don’t remember this happening at any point as well, so it should a great celebration of football in Prince Albert on Thursday,” Crusaders head coach Lindsay Strachan added.
Both teams are looking to earn their first wins of the campaign as they fell to 0-3 after losses on Friday.
The Crusaders came out on the wrong end of a 55-10 affair in Saskatoon against the Bethlehem Stars, while the Marauders suffered an 18-0 setback against the Evan Hardy Souls at Max Clunie Field.
“I thought our defence played very well, especially in the second half, but we just couldn’t finish on offence,” Hundeby said. “We struggled to run the ball consistently and we had a lot of missed passes.”
“The game against Bethlehem was very similar to the one we had in North Battleford last week as we were right with them before the Stars pulled ahead before halftime,” Strachan said. “We had a tough stretch of opponents to start off the season, but we’ve had lots of growth since the start of the year and you always get better by playing those good teams.”
Thursday’s opponents for Carlton and St. Mary are coming off polar opposite results was Walter Murray suffered a 64-0 loss to the Holy Cross Crusaders and Mount Royal picked up a 26-10 victory over the E.D. Feehan Trojans.
“Walter Murray had a tough season last year as they were a little weaker than they have been traditionally,” Strachan said. “It’s a young group but they are improving and I think it should be a competitive game.
“Mount Royal has a lot of good athletes and they are always a tough game,” Hundeby said. “This is one that we need to win as we’re looking to polish up the things that we need to fix ahead of the last couple of games of the season.”
