The Sacred Heart Saints hosted the Delisle Rebels in the provincial semi-finals of high school football over the weekend.
Over the course of the best season they've had in senior-level football, the Saints had proven themselves to be a strong second-half team.
That trend did not continue on Saturday.
There was no doubt that it was going to be their biggest test of the season. Most on the team knew that it was going to be a high-scoring tilt, just nobody ever would have predicted the amount of scoring (or lack thereof).
"It had to end sometime," suggested Trent Senger, Saints head coach and defensive co-ordinator moments after being handed one of their two worst losses of the season, a 33-2 defeat Saturday at the hands of the Rebels.
"Now we know what a really good team looks like," added Senger.
This after the Saints offensive unit was shut down completely for the first time this year. Not much went right as they went up against the strongest team defence they have likely ever seen.
"We knew we'd have trouble with them," said Senger.
Delisle took the lead for good early in the opening quarter on a short-gain touchdown and added a single-point convert to go up 7-0.
Yorkton recovered a Delisle fumble on a bad snap on their next possession and was forced into a field goal situation where Robert Okeny kicked for a single point to get the Saints on the scoreboard. Okeny would score his team's only points. They would get their final point of the game before long but Delisle added four more touchdowns for the win.
They had one score called back due to an illegal block in the third quarter. According to Senger, that was when the wheels fell off completely as the Rebels would go on to put the game out of reach.
"They are going to score," he said, referring to a team that came into the game boasting a perfect season record (7-0) and are now at 9-0 through two playoff games and heading to the provincial finals on Nov. 13"In the second half (today)," explains coach Senger, "they got rolling and there wasn't a whole lot we could do."
At some point during the match, Saints tailback Preston Liebrecht went down with a lower body injury, and with it, went most of the Saints ground attack.
"Preston hurt his knee," Senger reported, adding that the Gr. 11 student "took a lot of shots."Despite getting smoked on home turf, the speedster wasn't taking anything personally, or taking the loss too hard.
"This is the best season we've had in 25 years," he said, almost as if his team had won the game. This team got better (then it's ever been before)."
He added that there's two ways to take it, going on to explain that those two ways are positive or negative.
When asked how his team could respond against a team that they've a) never seen before in their lifetime, and b) knew that this was the only team in Conference play who have a perfect record, Liebrecht said everyone in yellow, black and white jerseys thought the final score would have been a lot closer.
He said it was disappointing to not be able to put the football in the end zone, but pointed out that for the entire first half it was as close a game can be.
"At the beginning, it kind of was..." he told reporters regarding how close the game was back in the first half. Then it got away.
"That was the best defence we've ever seen."
Senger told the paper that the score was right where he was hoping it would be at the half, Delisle holding onto a 9-2 lead with two quarters left to play, adding that Sacred Heart, as of late, has become a force to reckon with in the second half.
That trend did not continue this past Saturday.
"We had outscored the opposition in the second half of every game we played this season. We're going to be better next year.
With the loss, only their second loss on the season, the SHHS Saints did quite a bit to improve their chances for similar success next season.
Coach Senger told the paper that the player loss that comes around each year, should be minimal. Five starters from both offence and defence have played their final game in high school. They are Jonathan Bell, Morgan Giroux, Brian Lubienecki, Dakota German and Travis Inglis.
Following their victory over Sacred Heart, Delisle now moves on to the provincial championship scheduled for Nov. 13 when they will go up against the Humboldt Mohawks. Over the course of the regular season, the two schools have combined for 13 wins and no losses. Humboldt represents Conference I-North East, while Delisle represents Conference 4-North West.
