The St. Mary Marauders had no problems putting the ball in the end zone on Sept. 30, scoring early and often in a 41-14 drubbing of the Bethlehem Stars in Saskatoon.
The Marauder offence had a nice bounce back game, after putting up only four points in a loss to Walter Murray the week before, while the defence stifled the Stars passing attack for the last three quarters.
“We did a really good job of cleaning up some of our errors from the previous week against Walter Murray,” St. Mary head coach Curt Hundeby said. “That’s a game I think we could have won, and should have won … so it was nice to be able to turn it around, put up some points, and move the ball effectively against a pretty good team.”
Both teams entered the game looking to avenge losses from the week before. The offences traded touchdowns in the opening quarter, before the Marauders defence tightened, allowing the visitors to pull away.
Hundeby credited the team’s offence for maintaining their focus, and the defence for making the right adjustments after a difficult start.
“We knew they had a couple of pretty good receivers—tall, fast, athletic receivers—and on the first couple of drives they were able to get the ball to those guys pretty effectively,” he explained. “We were just a little bit cleaner on our linebacker drops. We adjusted our defensive back coverage a little bit better to take away some of those passes, so we went from them completing 15 yard passes to knocking a couple of passes down and even getting a couple of interceptions.”
The win moves the Marauders into a four-way tie for second place in the 6A High School Standings with a 2-1 record. They’ll face one of those teams—local rivals Carlton Comprehensive High School—in the annual Canadian Tire Classic at Max Clunie Field on Friday.
Hundeby said he’s not worried about complacency after a comfortable win. He expects his players to come out focused and hungry for another victory.
“They know Carlton’s a big game,” he said. “It’s not just a rivalry game. This is another 6A opponent, so it’s an important game from a rankings perspective for our playoff picture.”
Hundeby said he had a chance to view the tail end of Carlton’s 45-27 loss to Walter Murray. The St. Mary coach said he was impressed with the Crusaders’ never-say-die attitude, and expects a tough match-up with the two teams play on Friday.
“I know they’re a younger squad than we are, with a lot of young starters, but they’re very talented,” he said. “They’re very, very athletic. Their quarterback throws a really nice ball. They’ve got some really good guys playing linebacker and defensive back, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. We will have to be very, very sharp.”
Wins and losses aside, Hundeby said it’s just nice to get back on the football field for the Canadian Tire Classic. The event was cancelled the last two years due to COVID-19, and the St. Mary coach said he can’t wait to renew the old rivalry.
“It’s so nice to get football back in this province and back in this town,” Hundeby said. “This game is usually pretty well attended. Hopefully it’s really well attended again and have a really fun atmosphere in the park. I’ve been looking forward to this, literally, for two years.”
St. Mary and Carlton kick off the annual Canadian Tire Classic at Max Clunie Field in Prince Albert on Friday. Game time is 6:30 p.m.