The fifth annual Friday Night Lights game was supposed to be one of redemption on Friday, October 3.
The hometown YRHS Raiders were supposed to burst onto Century Field and dismantle the visiting A.E. Peacock Tornadoes with a combination of hard-nosed, physical defence and high octane offence.
They were even supposed to make Canada's top ranked high school quarterback, A.E. Peacock's Sawyer Buettner, wish he never knew where Yorkton was.
But instead it was Buettner and his Tornadoes that did the dismantling as the top ranked quarterback in the nation completed 18-of-26 passes for 377 yards and two touchdowns in a 49-21 Tornado victory to improve the Tornadoes record to 4-0 on the season and all but give them the first round bye in the 2014 playoffs.
Meanwhile the loss drops the Raiders record to 3-1 and second place in the seven-team MJHSFL with just two games remaining.
However the score, 49-21, doesn't really show how close the game actually was. "The score isn't really indicative of the game," suggested Raiders head coach Roby Sharpe. "It was a back and forth slugfest and then there are a couple of plays that we make or don't make and they get the ball and put it in the end zone.
"But up until the middle of the fourth quarter it could have gone either way."
Midway through the fourth quarter is indeed when the Tornadoes began to put the game away. Three straight touchdowns, scored at the 5:49, 1:33 and 0:30 marks of the final frame respectively, made it 49-21 Tornadoes less than six minutes after it was just a one score game at 28-21.
And while the receivers came down with the ball, it was really Buettner and his deadly arm that put the Raiders away late in the game. "It was like he was playing catch out there, he was just playing catch with his receivers," offered Sharpe of Peacock's star quarterback. "Their receivers, they found spots in our zone, sat down and he just went to work.
"He's deadly accurate and he can scramble and he beat us tonight."
Things started out well for the Raiders as star running back Zach Kais marched the ball down the field on the Raiders' opening drive, getting the ball down to Peacock's 10-yard line before Alex Popoff capped the drive off for the first touchdown of the game.
A convert kicked by Chilean import Matias Castillo made it 7-0 Yorkton and things looked good.
However the A.E. Peacock Tornadoes proved why they are the class of the league, shutting out the raucous crowd of nearly one-thousand and driving the ball down the field, responding with 2:21 left in the first quarter when Chase Griffin took the handoff from Buettner and found the end zone after a 10-yard romp.
The Tornadoes took the lead midway through the second quarter on a Kyle Arndt seven yard run before Buettner made it 21-7 when he hooked up with Griffin for a 30 yard catch and run with less than two minutes remaining and it looked as if the visitors would head to the locker room up by two touchdowns.
However that was not the case as the Raiders offence surged forward late in the first half and, following a Peacock timeout, cut the lead to seven when quarterback Nick Payne fooled the entire Tornado defence and literally walked into the end zone to make it 21-14 at the half.
The Raiders came out for the second half fired up, stopping a Peacock third and short gamble early on deep in Moose Jaw territory, only to have the Tornadoes respond in kind, turning possession back over to Buettner and company.
The Moose Jaw quarterback then went to work, advancing the ball to the 55 yard line before a rare mistake on a lateral resulted in the third Raider touchdown of the game when Brendan Dzuba scooped the ball up and ran it 55 yards untouched into the end zone to tie the game at 21.
The tie was short lived, however, as Buettner personally responded just over a minute later, scampering into the end zone on a seven yard run to once again put A.E. Peacock on top, this time for the final time at 28-21.
A fourth quarter offensive explosion by the Tornadoes in which they scored three touchdowns in a five minute span made the game seem more one sided than it had been with a 49-21 final.
Zach Kais led the Raiders' offence in the loss with 129 yards on 24 carries while quarterback Nick Payne completed just 10-of-17 passes for 123 yards on a night where the Tornado defence was suffocating.
Following the game Raiders head coach Roby Sharpe was left wondering why his team simply cannot beat the Tornadoes, who have now won the last four head-to-head meetings between the two teams. "For some reason we match up oddly against Peacock all the time," offered Sharpe, continuing, "Peacock will play Central and barely beat them, we'll go and beat Central 40-0 and then they come here and beat us.
"I don't know if their coaches have our number but they do a real good job against us. It's one of those things that we have to overcome later this season because we'll most likely see these guys again in the city final."
The next action for the YRHS Raiders (3-1) will be tomorrow (Thursday) when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Swift Current Colts (3-1) in a battle of second place teams.
The next home action will be Tuesday, October 14 when the Raiders wrap up their regular season by hosting the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones. Kickoff is set for 4:00p.m.
RMF action
The YRHS Junior Raiders were also in action this past weekend as they welcomed the visiting Regina Renegades to Century Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Junior Raiders kept the score close early on against the second best team in the RMF Bantam division, trailing just 16-8 at half time.
But much like their Senior Raider brethren, the Juniors also struggled in the second half, surrendering 40 points while putting up just eight more, six via a strong defensive play by Zach Fleury who ripped the ball out of the Renegade running backs hands and ran it over 60 yards for the touchdown. "Zach Fleury made an awesome play," offered Junior Raider head coach Al Kyle following the game. "They tried to reverse, he read it perfectly and grabbed the ball from their running back and took it all the way to the house for a touchdown.
"It was one of our biggest defensive plays of the year."
Unfortunately big plays were few and far between on Sunday. Final score: Regina Renegades 56, YRHS Junior Raiders 16.
The loss, the fifth of the season for the Junior Raiders, gives them a season ending record of 3-5 and seventh place in the nine team RMF Bantam division, meaning their first round opponent will likely be these same Renegades.
However coach Kyle believes that, if they get everyone back from the injured list, they could be dangerous enough to cause some upsets despite suffering their worst loss of the season. "This was by far the most lopsided loss," offered Kyle, adding, "But if we get our guys back from injury we can hang with any team in this league."
The Yorkton Peewee Gridders also took to the field this past weekend, but unlike the other Yorkton teams their game was on the road as they traveled to Estevan to battle the last place Estevan Chargers.
Unfortunately stats are unavailable at this time, however the Peewee Gridders did even their record at 4-4 with a commanding 62-0 win over the Chargers that propelled them into eighth place in the 17 team RMF Peewee Division.
The next action for the YRHS Junior Raiders will be Saturday, October 18 when they travel to Regina for their first round playoff game.
The next action for the Peewee Gridders will be Sunday, October 12 when they also travel to Regina for their first round playoff game against the Regina Rams.
