Revenge is a dish best served cold, and that’s exactly what the Yorkton Atom Gridders fed the Balgonie North Griffins for supper on Saturday evening at Regina’s Leibel Field after a statement-making 41-8 win over the same team that ended their season last year in the championship final.
“We just reminded the veterans what happened last year in the championship game against these guys. They didn’t really respect us too much there and so of course we felt disrespected, so we wanted to go out there and earn and take the respect,” offered Atom Gridder head coach Ryan Effa, continuing, “So we just came out really hungry and put together four full quarters of football, which is something we hadn’t really done all year yet besides maybe the first game of the year, but this was a total four quarter effort so that’s what I was really happy with.”
The complete game effort saw the Atom Gridders open the game up with a strong defensive stand, stopping the Balgonie North offence dead in its tracks on three plays.
They then took the ball and ran with it, literally, all the way to the end zone, opening the scoring on their first drive of the game thanks in large part to their offensive line completely dominating the Balgonie defensive front four. “Our offensive line all came out firing off the ball and really pushed their guys back all game and it started on our first series,” mentioned Effa, adding that the three headed rushing monster of Isaac Clarke, Chris Cole and Charlie Broyda also kept the Balgonie defence guessing with a combination of speed, aggression and willingness to run through, and over, contact.
Offensively Clarke was the big star in the game, scoring only one touchdown but still managing to make big plays that enabled the Atom Gridder offence to get deep into the red-zone and eventually score. “He was for sure our offensive game star, no doubt,” offered Effa. “He broke some big runs which got us right close to the goal line and he had a huge game catching the ball, too.”
Three other Atom Gridders also found the promised land in the game, as Justin Adam scored three touchdowns while Chris Cole had two and quarterback Jake Farrell scored one.
Defensively the entire Atom Gridder squad made their presence felt with Chet Ostapowich, Austin Walker and Kaynen Gervais delivering bone-crushing hits, just to name a few.
“We’re ecstatic with the kids and just very proud of them and the way they came out to play,” said Effa. “They knew it was a big game for the team and they delivered; every single one of them, and because of that we ended up winning.”
Next up
The next action for the Yorkton Atom Gridders (4-0) is this Saturday, September 12, as they host the second place Regina Bears (3-0-1) for a 10:30a.m. affair. “We got the Bears next week. They’re a well-coached team, I played with their head coach with the Rams and he’s a good football guy,” mentioned the Atom Gridder head coach. “They’re going to be a tough team and they’ve been handling their opponents pretty easily so far, so we have to be prepared for a battle, but if we play like we can we should be alright.”
