The Yorkton Raider Gridders rolled to another win Saturday.
The Regional High School team put up 35 points on their home field, while allowing Swift Current only 14, the visitor’s points coming in the second have after Yorkton already had a comfortable lead.
Raider Gridder head coach Roby Sharpe said they are always happy to get a win, but in this case he was not overly satisfied by his team’s performance.
The issue was the number of penalties the Raider Gridders took.
“I haven’t seen the stats yet, but we must have 200-yards in penalties to their 30,” said Sharpe in a post-game interview. “It’s frustrating.
“Obviously we’re the better team, so why was that happening?”
Sharpe said he addressed the penalties at half-time with the team, and the issue was less pronounced in the second half, but he added “we had a couple of big plays called back (on penalties)” noting in a closer contest that could have cost the team more than it did in the win.
While discipline needs to be better, Sharpe is still generally happy with the team at this point in the season, having not yet lost.
“We thought we were pretty good, but we weren’t sure how good,” he said, adding playing Vanier early didn’t clarify things because they didn’t play a very good game.
“We couldn’t measure how good we were playing Vanier,” he said, adding Swift Current was a better measuring stick. “We’re happy, but we still need to work on things.”
That work will include getting ready to play Moose Jaw Peacock this Saturday, in the southern city.
The Raiders are also looking to show they deserve to be higher in national high school rankings, currently seeded 22nd, while Bishop Mahoney High School in Saskatoon is at number two in the nation. While a long was until a provincial final, Sharpe said he is hoping to meet Bishop Mahoney in the provincial final later this year.
