Caleb Bymak ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns while senior quarterback Nick Payne threw for 172 yards and two scores as the YRHS Raiders downed the visiting Weyburn Eagles 39-0 at Century Field Saturday afternoon in Moose Jaw High School Football League (MJHSFL) quarterfinal action.
It鈥檚 the Raiders鈥� second shutout win over Weyburn this season, as they also beat the Eagles 50-0 back on Friday, October 2 during Friday Night Lights.
The Raiders combined high octane offence and suffocating defence to eliminate the Eagles from the 2015 playoffs, collecting 480 combined yards of offence while limiting Weyburn to just 69 yards of their own. 鈥淭he old saying 鈥榙efence wins championships鈥� is true. Any time the defence can give up a total of 69 yards and allow the offence to work with a short field, we should win every time,鈥� offered YRHS Raider offensive coordinator Jason Boyda, adding that their offence - based off that of the Oregon Ducks (NCAA) - also caused all sorts of trouble for Weyburn on Saturday. 鈥淲e like to run our offence quickly. No huddle, up-tempo, a lot of motion, a lot of misdirection and it usually causes lots of confusion for the other team.
鈥淭hat was evident today, especially in the first half where we scored most of our points before putting it on cruise control.鈥�
The Raiders opened the scoring on just their second possession of the game as Bymak finished off a three play drive with a 25 yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead. An extra point by kicker Ben Koroluk made it 7-0 with 7:14 remaining in the first quarter.
A 15-yard head tackle penalty on Weyburn combined with a 12 yard Brody Popowich run and a 16-yard Matthew Balysky reception put the Raiders on the three yard line on their very next possession, leading to Bymak鈥檚 second touchdown of the opening quarter and a 14-0 Raider lead. 鈥淲hen Bymak runs with the ball you don鈥檛 think he鈥檚 actually moving that fast but his strides are amazing,鈥� mentioned Boyda on the talented Raider running back. 鈥淗e鈥檚 got really long strides and he鈥檚 a punishing runner so when guys try to get a hand on him or arm tackle him he just blows right through them and trucks anyone that gets in his way and he did that for two touchdowns in the first quarter.鈥�
The second quarter saw the Raiders鈥� offence mix it up, with Payne hooking up with two different receivers for Raider touchdowns, first finding grade 10 receiver Matthew Mandziuk for a 13 yard score to make it 21-0 before hooking up with Balysky later in the quarter for a four yard touchdown pass.
The Raiders then put the game in cruise control, using much of the second half to rest some of their starters while testing some new plays that they had not yet been able to use. 鈥淲e thought in the second half that we鈥檇 move guys around and try a few things that we hadn鈥檛 tried so much in practice because you never know what鈥檚 going to happen next week,鈥� said Boyda, continuing, 鈥淣ot that we were looking ahead after the first half, but we had some injuries that we wanted to nurse so we asked some young guys to step in and get some quality playing time in a playoff game and they were able to do that.鈥�
Scoring in the second half for the Raiders were running back Brett Melnychuk, as well as kicker Ben Koroluk who hammered home a 42 yard field goal late in the third quarter.
Also putting forth a strong second half performance was Balysky, who 鈥� in addition to playing corner back on defence - took over at offensively at quarterback for Payne in the fourth quarter. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a special player because on defence he had an interception and some tackles, and on offence he had a receiving touchdown and engineered a touchdown drive as a quarterback,鈥� offered Boyda. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not too often that you get a grade 10 kid that can do all those things on a football field and do them that well, so that鈥檚 pretty impressive.鈥�
With the win the Raiders now get set to take on the second-ranked Central Cyclones, who defeated the YRHS 43-36 in their first meeting of the season back on September 26. 鈥淣ow we have to turn our attention to Central. They beat us last time, but we didn鈥檛 have our full roster,鈥� suggested Boyda, adding that this time he thinks things will be much different. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to have our full roster for this game, so we鈥檒l have a running game to go with our passing game.
鈥淥ffensively we passed the ball really well on them in our first meeting of the season but we weren鈥檛 able to run the ball because of missing players.鈥�
Last time the two teams met, Payne completed 20-of-33 passes for 468 yards and three touchdowns, however the Raider running game was non-existent. The Raiders also struggled to stop the Central run, something Boyda hopes the team can do this time around. 鈥淭heir two running backs ran crazy on us and ran for 330 yards, so our main focus this week will be to stop their run and force them into second and long situations where they have to go to their passing game,鈥� said Boyda. 鈥淭heir run game is extremely strong, but their passing game hasn鈥檛 been the greatest, so if we can stop the ground game we should be fine.鈥�
The Raiders will now take on the Central Cyclones in Moose Jaw on Saturday afternoon at an as of yet undetermined time. The Raiders are 0-2 in Moose Jaw this year, losing to Central 43-36 and A.E. Peacock 36-14. The winner of the game will take on the winner of the other league semi-final between the undefeated Peacock Tornadoes (6-0) and Swift Current Colts (3-4).
