The Carlton Crusaders have gone back-to-back in the North Saskatchewan Football League (NSFL).
The Crusaders claimed the league title with a 41-12 win over the St. Mary Marauders on Saturday afternoon at Max Clunie Field.
The win completed a second consecutive undefeated NSFL season for Carlton along with a second consecutive league title. The win also means the Crusaders advance to the 5A provincial semi-finals, where they will meet the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones.
“(I’m) excited for our kids,” Crusaders head coach Lindsay Strachan said. “Qhen we first started out this year, outside of our group I’m not sure that with what we lost, that people maybe saw us in this spot. But we knew that this was (the) potential for us.
“Lots of work to get to this point and blood, sweat, and tears over the last 10 weeks to put ourselves in a position to take advantage of this opportunity. (I’m) so, proud of our coaches, proud of our players,” he added.
Quarterback Colm Phillips, wide receiver Zane Litzenberger and running back Rylan Morrison led the team offensively most of the year. Phillips came in to replace quarterback Sullivan Smith-Windsor and was up for the challenge.
“It’s a tough spot to play and he’s embraced that role,” Strachan said. “We put a good line in front of him and we got great playmakers around him.”
While Strachan noted the strong performances from those three players, he said the rest of the squad played a big role too.
“We’ve had different guys step up at different times and make plays,” he said. “There may be names that you hear more often, but everything is by committee around here. (The) defence was great today. Specials were solid.”
Carlton opened the scoring just over nine minutes into the game with a 46-yard touchdown run by Phillips, the kick-off by Litzenberger went through the end zone for a single after his successful conversion. Early in the second quarter Litzenberger scored again on a 11-yard touchdown reception. At 8:49 of the second quarter Morrison scored on a one-yard touchdown run.
Morrison added another 69-yard touchdown run just after the 10 minute mark of the third quarter. As time expired in the third quarter Litzenberger scored his second Rouge of the game. Litzenberger added a 24-yard field goal at 4:17 of the third quarter. He then scored on a six-yard touchdown catch, which was followed by another convert and the third rouge of the game.
The Marauders did all of their scoring in the fourth quarter beginning with a 50-yard touchdown run by Simon Dube 11 seconds into the quarter. They added two more points on a safety by the defence at 1:50 of the quarter. Dube capped the Marauder scoring with a 35-yard field goal.
Morrison again led the Crusaders in rushing with 12 carries for 152 yards. Phillips also had six rushes for 84 yards on the ground. The leading receiver was Litzenberger with two catches for 17 yards, however both catches were for touchdowns. Phillips went three for six passing for 28 yards.
The leading rusher for the Marauders was quarterback Cohen L’Abbe with 14 rushes for 63 yards. Their leading pass receiver was Kolby Petite who had one catch for 20 yards. L’Abbe went five for 15 for 36 yards passing on the day.
Marauders coach Curt Hundeby was most disappointed for the graduating players following the loss.
“It’s tough for our Grade 12s,” he said. “They put in so much work and they battled so hard.
Last week though we played well and this week though we had a good game plan we just fell short.
“I mean, hats off to Carlton they are a great football team. They’re big and they’re fast and they’re polished and they play on the edge. They know how to play a tough, gritty football game. We have to bring some bigger guys because we’re losing some of our talented dudes.”
The list of graduating Marauders includes L’Abbe, Dube, Caleb Eckert, Jeremiah Sullivan along with all three of their starting linebackers.
“There’s going to be a lot of turnover for sure,” Hundeby said. “There’s some young guys that I know are going to step up.”
He said that the Marauders have to take more advantage of their opportunities to beat the Crusaders. He said they would also need a more polished game to defeat their crosstown rivals.
“We had chances. We had that one drop when we were down 14 nothing. If we caught that, I think he scores. I don’t think they catch him like that,” Hundeby said. “We had moments where I think we had a chance to play with these guys. They are too good for us to make the number of mistakes we made today and beat them and play with them. That’s just the reality.”
Hundeby said that making the championship game two out of three years was not a bad proposition.
“I would love for one year for us to not be the underdogs,” he said. “That’d be great. But I’m just so happy with how our guys scrapped this year. I mean, we’re undersized. We just battled.”
The Moose Jaw Central Cyclones will be the Crusaders opponent after a 44-3 win over the Swift Current Colts on Saturday to claim the South Rural Football League.
“They’ve kind of seemed to roll through that league for most of the year, putting up lots of points and lots of shutouts,” said Strachan, when asked about their next opponent.
“I’m sure they’re going to be athletic, I’m sure that they’re well coached, and we saw a little bit of them on film last year because they had played [Bishop James Mahoney] in the semi-finals.
“I think they got a pretty good returning cast, and at this time of year, you’re going to play good teams no matter who they are. [I’m] excited to get into the film and see what we’re up against next weekend.”
The Cyclones will be at Max Clunie Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. to face the Crusaders. On the other side of the 5A bracket, Saskatoon’s Bishop James Mahoney Saints are headed to Regina to take on the F.W. Johnson Wildcats at Leibel Field, also at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The provincial finals will be played on Saturday, Nov. 8, in either Prince Albert or Moose Jaw.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
