There is a belief that it鈥檚 actually the defence that wins championships and that the offence is just along for the ride.
If that鈥檚 true, then the YRHS Jr. Raiders might find themselves with a league championship sooner rather than later, because their defence has been nearly impossible to score on throughout the 2015 Regina Minor Football Bantam Division season.
That was the case once again this past Sunday, as the young Raiders held the Regina Sun Devils to just one first half touchdown en route to a 16-6 win in RMF Bantam semi-final action at Leibel Field.
Grade 10 captain Zack Fleury once again led the Junior Raider defence, recording 10 tackles and coming down with a huge interception in the fourth quarter that really slammed the door on the Sun Devils, but it was the play of fellow linebackers Gabe Loster and Ivan Gavryliuk that also strongly aided the Raiders in their semi-final win. 鈥淥f course Fleury had his usual big game for us, but our other two linebackers played really well too,鈥� mentioned Jr.Raider head coach Al Kyle. 鈥淕abe Loster had a hurt groin but he toughed it out until the fourth quarter when we basically had to pull him off the field because he couldn鈥檛 run anymore and Ivan Gavryliuk really flowed to the ball all game long and made some huge stops for us.鈥�
Offensively the Jr. Raiders were led by Braden Kitchen and Bryant Jones, both of whom found the end zone, as well as quarterback and kicker Jordin Rusnack. 鈥淔or our first score, Braden Kitchen was able to run the ball into the end zone to give us the lead and from there it was really a back and forth game for the rest of the first half,鈥� suggested Kyle, continuing, 鈥淚n the second half Bryant Jones had a couple of huge runs for us and was able to finish off a drive to really put us in the driver鈥檚 seat and from there we just shut them down.鈥�
The Jr. Raiders will now practice for the remainder of the week before heading to Regina on October 31 to take on the Regina Eagles in the 2015 RMF Bantam Championship game. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00p.m. at Leibel Field.
