In what was a near must-win situation, the St. Mary Marauders put together their best outing of the season on Thursday afternoon.
Five different players crossed the goal line at Max Clunie Field and the Marauders defence kept the Mount Royal Mustangs off the scoreboard as they improved to 1-3 in Saskatoon Secondary Schools Athletic Directorate play with a 34-0 victory.
“It’s nice to get a win under our belts after playing four quarters of tough football,” Marauders head coach Curt Hundeby said. “We were able to spread the ball around today and get lots of guys on the field, but our hats go off to Mount Royal as they played us tough until the very end.”
After an 18-0 loss last Friday night at home to the Evan Hardy Souls, the Marauders offence was clicking against the Mustangs as Aiden Edwards, Bauer Swystun, Gavin Johnson, Carter McDougall and Seth LeMoal all had rushing touchdowns.
“It was a little more of a polished game from us and we were able to finish plays and drives a lot better than we did last week,” Hundeby said.
“When we can spread the ball around like we did today, that makes it pretty hard for other teams to try and defend us. It also allows to find those soft spots in their defence, keeps our offence on the field and allows our defence to rest.”
The extra time on the sidelines paid off in bunches for the Marauders as they caused chaos in the Mustangs backfield all game long to earn their first shutout since a 56-0 triumph over the E.D. Feehan Trojans on Sept. 14, 2018.
“I thought our linebackers and our defensive ends really stepped up to stop their rushing attack,” Hundeby said. “That’s something that we really challenged them to a better job of after the Bethlehem Stars game a couple of weeks ago where they were able to gain a lot of yards on us.”
The Marauders have a tough task in front of them next week as they take on a Holy Cross Crusaders side that is 3-0 heading into a huge game Friday in Saskatoon against a 2-1 Centennial Chargers squad that has beaten them in the last two city finals.
“Holy Cross is the cream of the crop when it comes to the northern half of the province in high school football,” Hundeby said of the Crusaders, who had won six straight city titles prior to the Chargers’ recent success.
“It’s going to be a learning experience for our guys and it will give us a chance to see where we stand against them.”
