The Yorkton Atom Gridders ran headlong into a brick wall on Saturday morning, falling to the Regina Bears 34-0 at Yorkton鈥檚 Century Field.
The loss 鈥� the first of the season for the Gridders - snaps the Atom Gridders鈥� four-game winning streak and drops them to third place in the 13-team Regina Minor Football Atom Division, one point back of the Bears (4-0-1) and two back of the league leading Regina Eskimos (5-0-0).
The Ti-Cats (3-2-0) and Alouettes (3-1-0) sit fourth and fifth respectively with the Gaitors (2-1-1) in sixth.
The Thunderbirds (2-2-0), Balgonie Atom Griffins (2-3-0), Canadians (2-2-0) and Lions (2-2-0) find themselves in spots seven thru to ten with four points each, while the Badgers (0-5-0), Kats (0-5-0) and Bengals (0-5-0) remain winless on the season.
The visiting Bears led 12-0 at half-time and added 22 more points in the second half while the Atom Gridders simply could not find a way to penetrate the stubborn Bear defence. 鈥淭heir defence was crazy fast and disciplined and they just suffocated our offence,鈥� Atom Gridder head coach Ryan Effa told Yorkton This Week, adding that the Bears have historically been a tough test for the Gridders. 鈥淲e traditionally have really hard games against them. We knew they鈥檇 be good, we respect them and they鈥檙e a really well-coached team and they showed it today.鈥�
Effa then went on to say that while the Gridder offence was nearly non-existent on the day the defence put forth a strong effort, only to run out of gas late in the game. 鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for the defence the score would be a lot worse,鈥� offered Effa. 鈥淭hey hung in there, they fought hard and they definitely kept us in the game.
鈥淔or a long time the game was still attainable to come back from, and that鈥檚 a credit to our defence for sure.鈥�
While the positives were few and far between on Saturday, there were still positives; namely the fact that the loss came during the regular season and not in the final game of the campaign like last year. 鈥淲e have time to learn from this, it wasn鈥檛 a loss that ended the season,鈥� said Effa, continuing, 鈥淲e just have to learn from this, move forward and work harder next week against the Lions.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton Atom Gridders (4-1-0) will be this Sunday, September 20, when they travel to Regina to take on the Lions (2-2-0). A win will guarantee the Atom Gridders a third place finish in the regular season and a first-round bye in the RMF Atom Division playoffs.
