The Sacred Heart Saints football team played their last game of the regular season on home turf last Thursday, Oct. 20 against Esterhazy. The game ended in a 22-22 tie.
The Saints had a nearly perfect season, losing only one game and winning four. The one game they had lost was to Esterhazy on Oct. 7. The final score of that game was 26-6.
Last week, Esterhazy visited Yorkton for the final game. They were sitting on a 5-0 record.
The game started out well for the Saints, who quickly put some points up on the scoreboard. For a while, it looked like the Saints might take the win. But a series of back and forth points for both teams made it a close game.
Early in the fourth quarter, the score was 15-14 for Sacred Heart. Saints player Kelsey Valuck made a game-changing interception and run for the touchdown. After a one-point conversion, their score was boosted to 22.
But Esterhazy was able to squeeze another play in to tie the game. This put Esterhazy in first place in the league standings, and Sacred Heart in second going into next week’s playoffs.
The combination of Zach Goulden-Maddin and Nathan Cochrane made a number of impressive plays, connecting well as they normally do. Saints offensive coordinator Chad Holinaty said the coaches were impressed by every player’s effort in the game.
“It’s great to see lots of people contribute. It’s going to be important that we get contributions from everyone, whether it results in scoring or not,” he said. “If we rely on one or two guys, we probably aren’t going to get that far.”
Holinaty said although they hoped to come away with a win, the tie against Esterhazy shows the improvement they’ve made.
“We were overall pretty pleased. 22-tie was a good sign that we’ve made good adjustments,” he said. “We’re on the right track, but there are some areas we need to clean up if we want to make any sort of playoff run.
The team will practice for a week before they head for Fort Qu’Appelle for round one of playoffs, and Holinaty said they’ll be visiting the basics of blocking, running, pass protection and tackling.
In terms of the team’s success this season, Holinaty said the stats aren’t the only thing the coaches take into consideration.
“When you look at wins and losses, sure, it’s been a success,” he said. “But we also look at how the team grows. The commitment from the guys on the team, the number of guys, the energy and the excitement from around the school and city – we look at the character in the kids and how they’ve responded to adversity.”
“Not always is it just the score board and the record, but the relationships and how the kids have felt to be part of the team,” said Holinaty.
