If it was a regular-season matchup, there'd be a little more reason to be worried on the sidelines.
In their first and only exhibition tilt of the early going, the YRHS Raider senior football team went up against a stronger team based out of Regina.
The end result was not pretty, but nobody is worried just yet.
At least not head coach Roby Sharpe.
"That team plays in a AA league in Winnipeg," he said moments after a post-game talk with his players.He said that going into the game, he wasn't too sure where things stood in terms of how either team would compete, however he knew Winnipeg was not going to be taken lightly, playing their league games in a higher-class level than Yorkton.
The final score saw Yorkton take one on the chin, a 32-0 humbling, but being an exhibition game he said not a whole lot can be expected at a point in the season.
The first day of classes hadn't even come yet so some potential players weren't available to play."We played tough," said Sharpe. "There were a lot of bright spots," he said.
While the offence was nowhere near where he needs it to be, the special teams and the defence were collectively somewhere between good enough and excellent. While the offence managed an average of only one first down per quarter, the defence was solid in the early going and gave the offence a chance.
The special teams units, despite allowing a touchdown off a punt late in the second half, blocked Winnipeg on three convert attempts.
"Coach Boyda's frustrated," Sharpe acknowledged, "but the defence played reasonably well. We played two 15-minute quarters at the start," Sharpe testified. "Guys were tired" in that second half.
Among the bright spots for this year's club is Jake Prybylski at quarterback, who's serving to replace Georgio Karapanos. Prybylski took a beating against Winnipeg, but that did not seem to slow him down.
"He got the helmet today for the game's toughest player," Sharpe pointed out after watching his rookie pivot take a pounding through four quarters.
Prybylski was taken down numerous times throughout in his first start as high school quarterback but impressed enough by scrambling.
"It felt good," he said outside the team's locker room following the game. "It was just like practice."Sharpe said the two schools also have different arrangements for practices, some schools can start getting ready for the season earlier than others, but also pointed out that losses like this can actually have a bit of an upside.
"Honestly, I think it's good for these guys."
He added that Winnipeg may be getting in more practice time than YRHS as per league regulations which put restrictions on how much practice time each school in the league gets.
The season-opener for the high school Raiders goes on Sept. 4 against Luther at Century Field at 2:30 p.m.
The match against Luther last year came down to the last play of the game with the visitors prevailing.
