Defence was the name of the game Sunday afternoon as the YRHS Jr. Raiders edged the Lumsden Jr. Devils 14-8 at Century Field in RMF (Regina Minor Football) Bantam Division quarterfinal action.
The Jr. Raiders struck first when Bryant Jones pushed his way through the Lumsden defence for a Yorkton touchdown.
A successful two point conversion kick (in the RMF a kick is two points, a running or throwing conversion is one) gave the Raiders an 8-0 lead; a lead that would last throughout the rest of the first half. 鈥淚t was nice to have a lead after the first half,鈥� suggested Jr. Raider head coach Al Kyle, adding that throughout the season his team started slow before gaining speed in the second half. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a second half team, so to take a lead into the second half was huge for us.
鈥淟ast time we played these guys we were down 32-8 at half, so to have a lead was great.鈥�
The second half started out with the Jr. Raiders getting the ball, however a fumble on their opening possession gave the ball to the Devils.
A strong defensive stand by the Raiders forced Lumsden to gamble on a third and long play to no avail, resulting in a turnover on downs.
The Jr. Raiders instantly made the Devils pay for their lack of offensive success as starting quarterback Jordin Rusnack aired a pass out to wide receiver Carson Sveinbjornson, who made a great grab before evading several Lumsden defenders for an eventual 92 yard catch and run touchdown and a 14-0 Raider lead. 鈥淐arson鈥檚 a real good receiver for us,鈥� said coach Kyle on his star receiver. 鈥淲e figured if we went in that formation we could get him in isolation and we did.
鈥淩usnack threw him a nice ball and he was able to make a great catch and outrun their defence to score a huge touchdown for us.鈥�
A missed conversion meant the score remained 14-0 midway through the third quarter and with the Devils鈥� offence rolling following the Sveinbjornson touchdown, it looked as if the 14-point lead would be in jeopardy until Jordan Stewart nearly single-handedly put an end to the Lumsden drive, sacking the opposing quarterback on back-to-back plays to force yet another third and long gamble that didn鈥檛 pay off for the Devils. 鈥淪tewie is a guy that comes hard on every play and it doesn鈥檛 matter what the score is or what time it is in the game, you know that as soon as the ball is snapped he鈥檚 firing off as hard and quick as he can and he came up big for us again today,鈥� offered coach Kyle following the game. 鈥淗e probably has over 10 sacks for us this season and when we need a big play from the defence it seems like he鈥檚 always there to step up and make it and that鈥檚 what he did again for us this game.鈥�
Unfortunately the Raider offence couldn鈥檛 take advantage of their strong defensive play, handing the ball back over to the Devils who finally got on the scoreboard via a Luke Robertson touchdown, cutting the Yorkton lead to six at 14-8 with 5:50 left in the game.
Fortunately for the Raiders they鈥檝e spent much of their season playing in close games and used that experience to close out the final six minutes of the game to secure the 14-8 quarterfinal victory over Lumsden.
The Jr. Raiders will now take on the Regina Sun Devils on Sunday, October 25 at Regina鈥檚 Leibel Field with the winner facing the winner of the Regina Lakers/Regina Eagles game in the RMF Bantam Division championship game the following weekend.
