The Carlton Crusaders opened their season with a 23-8 loss to the Lloydminster Holy Rosary Raiders on Friday night at Max Clunie field.
Crusaders’ head coach Lindsay Strachan said that coming back as defending 5A Champions they faced a quality opponent in the Raiders.
“It has been the first one in a while, but I guess big picture, it’s exhibition and you know what? We got to get guys lined up against the quality team,” Strachan said. “They’re well coached and they execute. Also in Alberta they I think they’re able to get back together a little bit sooner than we are here.
“You could definitely tell at times that polish was a little bit more evident on their side of the ball than it was ours,” he added.
The game may not have gone their way but Strachan did see positive effort.
“We saw some good things and we battled. It wasn’t the usual feeling too. Just our execution was a little bit off,” he said.
The Raiders were able to effectively run the ball against the Crusaders. Strachan said they will try to fix up that aspect of their game over the next week.
“The great part is we will get into the film this weekend,” he said. “I think that we definitely lost a bit of the battle up front today. We had to find a way to be to be more on the same page there and just execute a little bit better.”
The game was scoreless after the first quarter and tied 8-8 after the second quarter. The game remained tied for the third quarter before the Raiders closed out the game with 15 points in the fourth quarter.
Strachan said that he liked that the Crusaders competed until the final whistle
The Crusaders scored their only touchdown of the game at 4:28 of the second quarter when quarterback Colm Phillips ran for a 15-yard score. The extra point covert attempt was unsuccessful. The Crusders’ other points came off a missed field goal and a rouge.
The Raider opened their scoring in the second quarter on a touchdown pass to Moyo Akinloye, who then added a catch on the two-point conversion.
The Raiders took the lead with a one-yard touchdown run by Kostas Mavridis to open the fourth quarter. The Raiders added two points on two missed field goals, and closed out the scoring with a 37-yard touchdown pass to Denem Weber and a safety.
Strachan said the loss was a growth opportunity.
“It’s always about growth around here,” he explained. “We saw some really good things tonight and guys were competing. We just have to polish a few things up and clean a few things.”
The Crusaders open the regular North Sask Football League season against North Battleford Comp on Sept. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Max Clunie Field.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
