The playoffs are a different season. A dominant performance in regular season play is thrown out the window as the playoffs begin. The Yorkton Regional High School Raider Gridders ended their season in town against the Bishop Mahoney Saints out of Saskatoon on Saturday, Nov. 3, with a final score of 22-15.
The major problem in the game for Yorkton happened in the first quarter, when quarterback Jordin Rusnack got injured. According to head coach Roby Sharpe, they had the best team in the province when Rusnack is healthy. When he’s not, Sharpe argues that they have the second best team in the province. Unfortunately they happened to be playing against the best. Bishop Mahoney was as dominant in the Saskatoon league as YRHS was in the Moose Jaw league. The game was a match between two extremely strong teams.
“He’s one of the best, if not the best quarterback in the province... There are just all different aspects of Jordin. Not only is he a phenomenal quarterback, he can pass the ball like crazy, he’s also the fourth leading rusher in the league. He’s the leading punter in the league, he’s got the most points in the league, he kicks field goals. It kind of threw us, we lose four starting positions when he goes out.”
Sharpe is still proud about how the team pulled together after the injury and players who would have normally been on the sidelines stepped up. He’s happy with how back up quarterback Connor Watrych performed in the game; though he’s not nearly as experienced as Rusnack and hasn’t played much this year, he kept the team in the game.
The defense played extremely well, Sharpe said, and the game was close until the end, with only a touchdown separating the two teams. Sharpe said that in spite of the score, it was an exciting football game and a real show of the best football in the province.
“Not having our star and still playing that well, it’s a testament to how good our team really is.”
The story, however, is very similar to last year, which also saw the team lose its star player in the last game, when Matthew Mandziuk was injured in the semi-finals. Sharpe said that to win championships a team needs good players and luck, and as good as the players in Yorkton are, they haven’t had any luck.
“Two years in a row, we’ve been snake-bitten.”
Still, after a dominant season and a league championship, there are many positives to take out of this season. The loss still stings, however, said Sharpe.
“There’s lots of positives to take out of it. Unfortunately, at this moment, it’s hard to see those.”
