It started in warmups.
The Regina Alouettes lined up shoulder to shoulder and mockingly clapped the Yorkton Peewee Gridders as they took to the field.
It continued during the game, as calls of ‘hillbillies’ and ‘rednecks’ echoed across Regina’s Leibel Field from both sides with fans, players and even coaches of the Alouettes hurling insults at the Peewee Gridder players and coaches.
Eventually it boiled over, as the Alouettes’ players started to take cheap shots towards the end of the game.
But none of it worked, as the Yorkton Peewee Gridders had the last laugh, downing the Alouettes 52-14 for their eighth straight win in Regina Minor Football Peewee Division action. “It wasn’t very classy of them, that’s for sure,” said Peewee Gridder head coach Grant Edgar following the game, adding that this wasn’t something they were expecting as the teams in the RMF Peewee Division have, up until that point, been extremely well-mannered. “Other teams, the Vikings for example, were great. It’s just these guys that let their tempers flare.
“But you know, that’s football, too. It’s an intense sport, it’s a physical sport and sometimes tempers flare. Towards the end of the game things got a little chippy, a little out of hand maybe, but not from our side. We want to get through the game unscathed and we did.”
Offensively in the game rookie quarterback Riley Clarke played well, hooking up with receivers Johntee Ostapowich and Carter Pawliw for a pair of big touchdown passes in the second half, while defensively the combination of Fayden Gramyk and Brad Heskin at either defensive end position and Stephen Smith at linebacker caused all sorts of problems for the Alouette attack. “Defensively we had a big three. Fayden Gramyk had another big game at defensive end. Brad Heskin was battling a couple of injuries yet he still had another great game, and Stephen Smith as well,” offered Edgar. “Those guys are a force to be reckoned with and continued to dominate the other team’s offence.”
Overall coach Edgar said he was happy with the way his team handled things today; both on and off the field. “The kids played very well against a rough, mean team. They responded well to everything that happened, and although they shouldn’t have to deal with that stuff, they did so perfectly,” mentioned the Peewe Gridder head coach. “We came out to play and things worked out for us and now we’ll see what happens with the tiebreaker, but either way we’ll finish one or two and get a first round bye.”
The tiebreaker that Edgar mentioned will be between the Peewee Gridders and the Balgonie North Griffins, as both teams finished 8-0-0 on the season with the maximum 160 point differential.
