The St. Mary Marauders football team improved to 2-1 on the season with a 27-0 shutout victory over the Lloydminster Barons on Friday night at Max Clunie Field.
The win puts the Marauders in second place in the North Saskatchewan Football League (NSFL) standings behind the undefeated 2-0 Carlton Crusaders.
Marauders coach Curt Hundeby said the Marauders seem to be rounding into shape.
“I’m really happy with how we’re progressing,” Hundeby said. “I thought today we did a good job just being consistent. Defensively, I thought we were real consistent.
“Guys we’re improving. I think we’re doing a decent job up front with our D-line. Our linebackers are getting better and DBs. We’re improving. The whole group’s improving.”
“Offensively, you’ve got to be a bit more consistent than we were today,” Hundeby added. “We had some big stuff but just wasn’t quite as consistent as I would have liked, but I think that’s stuff we’ve got to work on over the week.”
The Marauders led 14-0 after the first, second and third quarters.
Caleb Eckert had two long runs for touchdowns which Hundeby said was a nice thing to have.
“Those help,” he said. “Those are nice. I know that we don’t get those against everybody, and I know Carlton’s going to do a pretty good job to shut those down next week, so we’ve got to do a better job of distributing the ball around to the rest of the guys on offense so that it’s not just one guy.”
The Marauders opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game when Cohen L’Abbe scored his first touchdown on five-yard rush with a successful convert. Caleb Eckert had his first long touchdown on a 96-yard rush at 7:40 of the first quarter with a successful convert.
After scoreless second and third quarters, L’Abbe added another TD on a 10-yard rush with a missed conversion. Eckert scored his last touch down just over five minutes into the fourth with a 97-yard rush for a touchdown with a successful convert.
In total, Eckert had eight carries for 245 yards. Along with the rushing touchdowns L’Abbe had went 8/25 for 77 yards through the air.
Hundeby said it was nice to pitch a shutout on defence.
“We challenged our defence all week,” Hundeby said. “We watched film and we said, ‘guys, if we don’t make mistakes, I think we can keep them out of the end zone.’
“We had a couple of bits and pieces where they got some stuff on us. We bent, but didn’t break, and I thought our guys really rallied.”
Hundeby gave the example of adjusting in game to an option play that Lloydminster ran.
“They caught us a couple times and then we fixed it and we sorted that out. Just very happy with how our defence played and our offense, I think, did enough for us to put up a W.”
Hundeby said that winning is fun and the team is bonding well.
“We try and provide them an opportunity to really kind of connect with each other over the week, and we really stress that this is a sport where you got to rely on each other,” he explained. “There’s a trust factor that’s just woven into football that’s so, integral. The more they believe it, the more they trust each other, the more we can achieve.”
The teams next matchup is on Friday, Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the Car Guys Classic, which returns to Max Clunie Field after a year in Birch Hills while the track was upgraded.
Hundeby said facing the defending 5A Provincial Champions will be a very difficult game.
“They have a very good offense. They have got some, they have got some amazing weapons. They’ve got a very tough defence that loves to fly around. They don’t miss many tackles. They have a very good coaching staff,” Hundeby said.
He added that there is no aspect of the Crusaders’ game that is not sharp.
“We need to do our have the best week of practice we’ve had all year if we want to match them. That’ll be a challenge to our guys,” he said.
The Crusaders are coming off a 21-13 win in Martensville on Friday evening to improve to 2-0.
“Our challenge is that we’ve got to we’ve got to match the intensity and the focus that Carlton had last year so that we can play with them this year,” Hundeby said.
The Marauders lost their regular kicker to injury but the punting game was strong with no return yards allowed.
“I think our cover teams were all right,” Hundeby said. “They did it pretty well. Actually, Charles Velas, I think, had three or four special teams tackles, number 33, he has a force on specials today.
“Our guys are embracing their roles that way, but again we need to be dialed in all three phases for next week.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
