Vikings score early, often in win over Crusaders

The North Battleford CHS Vikings went deep into their playbook, completing 13 passes to five different receivers, to beat the Carlton CHS Crusaders 37-13 on Thursday night at Max Clunie Field.

Undisciplined play from the Crusaders early in the first-half set the Vikings up with good field position on first down more than once.

Vikings QB Damon Dutton was able to find his top receiver Zach Wolfe for seven completions and two touch downs. Dutton spread the ball around though, including sending a lateral to Nils Graupe, who hit a wide-open Presley Peterson for the easy touchdown in the second quarter. Crisp passing and executing off of Crusader penalties had the Vikings up 34-0 at half time, putting the game away early.

Carlton head coach Lindsay Strachan said his team knew they were going to be in tough against a strong North Battleford team. Ultimately, it was his team’s inability to execute, especially on second down, which cost them.

“It’s a team game and we weren’t good enough in three phases,” he said. “Execution just wasn’t where it needs to be right now, we got lots of work to do”

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Carlton finally got their offence going in the second half. Crusaders QB Darryl Sanderson completed his first passes, and finally got Carlton a first down midway through the third quarter. A fortunate interference call on a deep pass, set the Crusaders up with good field position to convert a pass to a wide-open Jaxon Michel to finally get on the board.

It was too-little-too-late though, as a number of dropped passes and costly penalties kept the game out of reach for Carlton. The Vikings got big plays from dual threat receiver and punt-returner, Presley Peterson, and soft hands from Zach Wolfe to make sure the game was never in doubt.

Vikings head coach Mike Humenny was pleased with his team’s effort on offence. Getting players involved was something they had worked on in preparation for the game.

“One of the goals we had this week was to spread the ball around and have a number of different guys make plays,” Humenny said. “But ultimately our same playmakers showed up today and we did some really good things in the first half. We’re extremely happy.”

The Crusaders will take the field next Thursday in Saskatoon against Tommy Douglas Collegiate while North Battleford returns home to play Mount Royal. 

shane.oneill@paNOW.com

On Twitter: @stroneill