The St. Mary Marauders football team finally broke through into the win column Thursday night with a 52-36 victory over the Bethlehem Stars in Saskatoon.
Marauder head coach Curt Hundeby says it was great for the team to pick up their first win of the campaign.
“It was really important. We’ve been waiting for a while. It was nice to see the guys figure out some issues and move the ball when we needed to and put up some points. It was close in the 4th quarter, we were able to make some plays and close it out. It was a real team effort.”
Offensively, the Marauders were led by their rushing attack as they compiled 416 yards on the ground. Tyson Prokopetz led the charge for St. Mary as he rushed for 166 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns.
Hundeby says the key to the victory for the Marauders was the improvements the team made to their blocks.
“I thought we improved on a lot of our blocking angles and that was the biggest improvement in our run game. We were able to get holes where we needed to get holes to run through. Passing-wise, when we complete half of our passes, it keeps defenses more honest and they can’t just come after our run game. Those two things together make the biggest difference.”
St. Mary grabbed the early lead after one quarter as Prokopetz and Luke Kalmikoff ran for touchdowns and the Marauders grabbed an early 13-7 lead after one quarter.
St. Mary added nine points in the second quarter as Kalmikoff recorded his second touchdown of the game catching a 10 yard reception from quarterback Liam Martin. The Marauders would convert on the two point attempt and add a single on a missed field goal to lead 22-15 at the half.
In the third, St. Mary would score early on a 75 yard fumble recovery touchdown but Bethlehem would answer on a 95 yard touchdown run by Enoch Tsinkorang. Less then two minutes later, Jonah Reinheimer would catch a pass from 7 yards out.
St. Mary outscored the Stars 15-6 in the fourth quarter thanks to a 47 yard touchdown reception from Lukas Robin, a two point conversion and a 15 yard rushing touchdown by Griffin Johns.
Hundeby says it was the little blocking adjustments that made the difference in the Marauder win
“It was sustaining blocks and block angles is what did it. It doesn’t seem like much, but 10 to 15 degrees is the difference between making the block and not. Same person blocking the same person, just a slightly different angle and we got a play instead of not. When we’re talking little things, we’re literally talking 15 degrees.”
The Marauders are off until Thursday, Oct. 15 when they take on the Tommy Douglas Tigers in Saskatoon.
@nathanreiter14 • sports@paherald.sk.ca
