By Nathan Kanter

Crusaders win pits them against Royals in playoffs

Oct 17, 2016 | 12:00 PM

Greeting the Crusaders at their regular season finale in Meadow Lake on Friday was a not so pleasant site: snow.

Not just a little bit of snow, but droves of it – roughly five-feet deep.

“It was the craziest weather conditions I’ve ever played a football game in,” Crusaders head coach Bruce Yockey said. “It was a full-out blizzard.”

Surprisingly, given the conditions, JP II was able get a decent air game going and played stellar defence in a 26-0 win to close out their season at 3-3.

“Defensively, we put a lot of pressure on them. Field advantage was ours all game long,” Yockey said. “Right off the hop, Devin McAllister laid out some pretty big hits both on kick off and defensively playing outside linebacker. It seemed everyone fed off of that.

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“Obviously the footing was a little tricky out there but our guys played really well.”

With injuries still plaguing Jacob Stynsky, Narcisse Mbwebwe, and Blaise Sieban, Yockey said those that filled in did admirably.

“I’m just proud of the guys,” he said. “Players filled in at spots they’re not used to playing and just did a really good job.”

The hope heading into Saturday’s playoff game against Martensville, of course, is to get as many of those three players back as possible.

Stynsky, the steam’s star running back, hurt his ankle earlier in the season and then aggravated it in a road loss to Warman on October 6. Mbwebwe is having an MRI on his knee this upcoming week and Sieban, who can play defensive back, receiver, and running back, should be good to go.

The 4-2 Royals took down JP II on Sept. 22 at Crusaders Field by a score of 36-8.

Yockey said his squad made things hard on themselves in that loss to Martensville.

“We turned the ball over at crucial times when the game was close and some penalties hurt us too,” Yockey said. “I think the biggest thing is to keep it to the play on the field and look after the ball.”

But it won’t be easy.

Not only did Martensville beat JP II earlier this season, they also beat Delisle 35-21 earlier in the year, a team that won 48-14 over the Crusaders on Sept. 29.

“I like the way we match up against them [but] it’ll be a tough game,” Yockey said. “They’re a good solid defensive team so we’ve got to make sure we keep our mistakes down to a minimum.”

Saturday’s playoff game is set for 1 p.m. in Martensville. If the Crusaders win, they’ll crossover into the C3 conference but it’s unclear who they’ll play at the moment.

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11