The Sacred Heart Saints senior football team traveled to Foam Lake to take on the defending conference champion Panthers on Friday, September 5 in what was their first game of the 2014 SHSAA Nine-Man season.
The result however was not to their liking as the host Panthers, aided by a raucous crowd of well over 400, hammered Sacred Heart to the tune of 39-0 in a game that was originally scheduled for 4:00p.m., but was moved back to 7:30p.m. to allow for the use of Foam Lake's new light standards.
The game looked to start off well for the Saints as they were elected to receive the ball for the game's opening possession. However a short kick by Foam Lake resulted in the home side gaining possession of the ball before marching it down the field for their first of many touchdowns in the game.
The short kick, which has become Foam Lake's signature play these past few years, is something that Saints head coach Trent Senger said he had warned his team about, but to no avail. "They came off the hop and short kicked," said Senger. "We warned our kids that they are very good at it and that's all they do but they took the ball and took the momentum right off the hop and kept it."
Senger also felt that the lights, other than doing their normal job of lighting the field during the night game, played double duty on Friday by distracting the Sacred Heart players; something he believes worked to Foam Lake's advantage. "Our kids were a little in awe," offered the Saints bench boss. "You get to the field and you see these huge light standards and huge lights, I think it took us the first quarter before the stars and all of that disappeared.
"The fans they had there were intimidating as well. They had huge fan support and we probably had 35 fans of our own at the game which is great for us to see."
Those 35 Saints fans that made the nearly one hour journey to Foam Lake must have felt like they made the wrong decision as Sacred Heart trailed 32-0 at halftime.
However a strong second half defensive display, against the majority of Foam Lake's offensive starters, proved to everyone that the Saints start to the game was not how their entire season will go. "Once we started to focus we stayed with them and they only scored one touchdown in the second half," mentioned Senger, adding that although he and his team do not like getting beaten up, they still saw some positives in the game, especially on the defensive side of the game.
Some of the major positives that Senger felt he could build on was the play of three particular members of his defence. Brody Kormos, Nick Clarke and Madison Wasylyniuk all had strong performances for the Saints in the loss. "Nick Clarke on defence is a guy who hasn't played a lot of defence but he stood out for us. He made some good hits, some good calls," offered the Saints head coach. "Brody Kormos played tough in the first half when the rest of the defence was a little suspect and Madison Wasylyniuk played awesome on defence the whole game."
Senger also felt that his quarterback Bryan Buzinski put together a decent performance as well, especially in the second half, until he had to leave the game when his hand got caught between two helmets. "He (Buzinski) settled down in the second half and made a couple of beautiful passes. We were there with only one quarterback as our other one (Tannum Wyonzek) was gone reffing hockey. That kind of put a little bit more pressure on him," said Senger, adding that once Buzinski left the game Nick Clarke took over the quarterback duties despite only taking three reps at the position in practice.
Next action
The next action for the Sacred Heart Saints (0-1) senior football team will be Thursday, September 11 when they host the Broadview Bandits (0-1), the newest team to the SHSAA Nine-Man football league, for the first ever meeting between the two teams.
Broadview lost its first game of the season 47-24 to the Melville Cobras.
Kick-off between the Saints and Bandits is scheduled for 4:00p.m.
