The St. Paul Lions opened their season against Wainwright in style on Friday night. Though they faced early challenged, a strong defensive line and tight offense led them to a hard-fought comeback victory.
The Lions fell down early when Wainwright scored a touchdown and PAT off of their first drive of the game. Not wanting Wainwright to take advantage of an early shift in momentum, Lions coach Mark Tichkowsky called a time out to rally his troops.
"I think there were some first-game jitters and maybe a bit too much excitement," he said after the game, "so I called the boys together and we worked out a bit of that nervousness and just tried to refocus and not get carried away by anything."
Tichkowsky's time out worked wonders for the Lions, who played an exceptional game from then on. They retaliated in kind with a touchdown of their own shortly after in the final play of the first quarter, but their PAT attempt was blocked, leaving them behind by a point with a score of 7-6.
To start the second quarter, the Lions took a gamble and attempted a rare onside kick during their return, which they recovered for themselves. The ensuing drive led to another touchdown, courtesy of a 40-yard pass from quarterback Parker Lumby which was received and taken home by Shayne Hurtubise. To make up for their blocked PAT attempt earlier in the game, the Lions ran for two after Hurtubise's touchdown, but were stopped short of the end zone.
The Lions added to their score again in the second quarter when Lumby ran in a touchdown of his own, and then multiplied their success again with a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter.
Wainwright found their legs with about seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. St. Paul prevented a runaway blitz from going Wainwright's way with a well-timed tackle, but couldn't hold them off entirely. Wainwright were able to score their second touchdown of the game with five minutes remaining, but couldn't surmount St. Paul's overbearing defense. After two more Lions touchdowns that were negated due to penalties, the game wrapped up with a final score of 32-14.
"Things were a bit dicey for us in the beginning there," said Parker Lumby, "and we definitely didn't want to start the game by going down seven on the first drive. But in the end our offense and defense both stepped up big time, and we got the win. It doesn't really matter how you start the game, just how you end it, and we ended it really well tonight."
"I think we played really well, and it was a perfect game to start the season off," Coach Tichkowsky said. "We learned that we can't relax or take things easy, because that's how you fall out of contention quickly. But we also were able to see our own strength and determination and that we have the potential to win games."
The Lions' schedule was modified late last week due to teams from Vegreville and Vermilion not competing in league play this year, so this weekend they will hit the road to take on Westlock before returning home to host Athabasca on September 22.