The Sacred Heart Saints' football season came to a crashing end in their 2014 SHSAA Nine Man Provincial quarterfinal game in Warman Saturday, November 1, falling victim to the top ranked Wolverines 53-0.
The Saints' offence simply could not solve the suffocating Warman Wolverine defence, failing to find the scoreboard all game long and struggling to move the ball for much of the game, picking up their initial first down of the match up early in the fourth quarter. "Our offence just couldn't find a hole," offered Saints head coach Trent Senger. "We didn't get our first first down until the fourth quarter, which is a testament to their defence.
"When their defence came at us as hard as it did, I think our boys panicked and we just couldn't get our heads away from the thought that we can't move the ball on them."
But while the Saints' offence struggled, the Wolverine attack did not, taking advantage of an increasingly tired Sacred Heart defence to put up 53 points in the 53-0 playoff rout. "The defence played the bulk of the game and the boys got worn out," said Senger matter-of-factly, adding that his defence started strong but eventually got worked over by a very talented Warman offence. "They're good. We thought they had two really good offensive weapons but we found out they have five.
"We just couldn't cover all five guys. We're just not strong enough to do that yet."
One player on the Saints defence that was equal to the task, however, was grade 11 defensive captain Brody Kormos, who Senger felt played a phenomenal game until the fourth quarter when he had to leave due to injury. "Brody ended up with 18 or 20 tackles, eight assists," boasted Senger of his star defensive weapon. "That was all before the start of the fourth quarter. I pulled him out in the fourth because he got clipped pretty good in the arm returning a punt.
"His elbow swelled up pretty bad and it's just not worth risking a kid's health so we pulled him out of the game for the fourth quarter."
Grade 12 rookie Sam Lohnes, in his final football game of his high school career, also impressed Senger. "Sam (Lohnes) did well too," suggested the Saints head coach. "He's a grade 12 rookie but he played his heart out. He played both defence and offence in the second half and the poor guy looked like a wet noodle at the end of the game on the bus but he played well."
The loss was the eighth of the season for the Saints, who finished the regular season at 1-7, however injuries also played a key role in that record as the Saints lost starting quarterback Bryan Buzinski and starting running back Caleb Sutter to season ending injuries very early on. "This year we got hit with the injury bug worse than we've ever had as a football team," said Senger. "You lose your starting quarterback and starting running back, that doesn't bode well for your offence.
"Hopefully we'll avoid that next year and go from there and see what we can do."
As for next year Senger is optimistic, saying that while they'll once again be young, they'll also be returning their starting QB Buzinski, top receivers Zach Goulden-Maddin and Nathan Cochrane and their defensive leader Kormos, as well as bringing up a plethora of skilled players from the junior team including quarterback prospect Grady Hawkins, who Senger expects will be good enough to take the reins for Buzinski should the veteran QB not be ready for the start of the season.
