The St. Mary Marauders came close to spoiling homecoming weekend in Saskatoon on Thursday.

The Prince Albert high school football team lost an 18-17 nail-biter to Walter Murray Collegiate in a battle of the Marauders at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

The loss drops St. Mary to 0-2 on the season while the Walter Murray Marauders improves to 2-0.

The home side opened the scoring with a 30-yard field goal nearly four minutes into the game, but it was the visitors who scored the first touchdown.

St. Mary quarterback Tyler Rock plunged across the goal line from 1-yard out to put his team in front 7-3 10 minutes into the contest.

Walter Murray regained the lead in the second quarter when Adam LaBrash hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-7 at halftime.

The third quarter turned into a defensive struggle as both offences failed to put points on the board.

St. Mary broke the scoring drought just 20 seconds into the fourth quarter, when Grant Alexander hauled in a 35-yard touchdown toss from Rock to make the score 14-10. They extended their lead to 17-10 just a few minutes later, when Kyle Witkowski booted a 26-yard field goal.

The lead held until the final five minutes when Walter Murray hit paydirt on a 15-yard passing play, and added a successful two-point convert to make the final score 18-17.

The St. Mary Marauders are back in action on Thursday, Sept. 21, when they take on their cross-town rivals from Carlton in the annual Canadian Tire Cup. Kick-off is 6:30 p.m. at Max Clunie Field.