The St. Mary Marauders opened their 2025 high school football season with an exhibition loss to the St. Paul Lions on Saturday.
The Lions opened up a 20-7 lead by halftime and cruised to a 56-17 win at Max Clunie Field. Despite the loss, St. Mary head coach Curt Hundeby said he was happy with the effort.
“We had some missed catches, had a couple of bounces that didn’t just quite go our way, but all in all, I’m quite happy with how we scrapped and how we battled,” Hundeby said. “We just need to take these lessons and get better.”
St. Paul did most of their damage on the ground, with three second half rushing touchdowns. The Lions could have had a fourth, but a 61-yard TD run early in the third quarter was called back due to an illegal block downfield.
Hundeby gave the Lions full credit for their rushing attack, and credited the Marauder defence for playing tough all game.
“I don’t know if we’re going to face an O-line that big for the rest of the year,” Hundeby said. “They were very physical, very good, and so hats off to our d-lineman who really had to battle them all day. They spent a lot of time on the field today. We learned some good lessons about leverage and physics, and so I hope we can take those lessons and fix those (issues) moving forward.”
The Marauders scored their only second half touchdown on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 5:52 to play in the game. St. Mary benefited from some undisciplined St. Paul play, including an unnecessary roughness penalty that put the Marauders on the one yard line.
That touchdown made the score 35-17, but the Lions responded with two touchdowns in less than 20 seconds. The second was a back-breaking interception returned for a touchdown that put the game out of reach.
The Marauders are off until Friday when they travel to Martensville for the first game on their North Saskatchewan Football League schedule. Kick-off is 4 p.m.
