The St. Paul Bengals played their first football game of the weekend on Saturday as they hosted the Wainwright Warhawks at St. Paul Regional High School. The Bengals took full control of the game from the very first play and easily defeated an outmatched and undersized Wainwright team.
Wainwright began the game on offense, and in a play that would set the tone for the game, St. Paul sacked the Warhawks quarterback for a loss of fifteen yards on the second play of the game. Wainwright punted the ball away, giving the Bengals their first offensive drive of the game.
Malcolm Steeves put the Bengals on the board with a touchdown on a 30-yard run on their opening drive, putting the Bengals up 7-0.
The Warhawks played a risky game and attempted third-down conversions instead of punts multiple times, and without fail, the St. Paul defensive line would force a turnover on downs, leaving them in desirable field position. This situation led to another St. Paul touchdown by Tyler Foote off of a 25-yard pass just one minute after Steeves' TD.
The game largely followed this pattern—strong defensive plays leading to ideal field position for the offense—throughout the full 48 minutes. The Bengals failed to end drives in touchdowns on only a few occasions, and more than once were able to end Warhawk drives early with perfectly times pass interceptions.
Wainwright made a strong push in the fourth quarter and nearly put some points up on the board, but the Bengals defense, and especially their size, was insurmountable, and the Bengals walked off the field with a 62-0 shutout victory.
After the game, Kieran Kotowich spoke about how he and his teammates were able to come away with such a decisive victory:
"You've got to take every game seriously, and expect to do your best. When you expect to be your best then hopefully you can get a win. Our defense did really good controlling the line, we didn't get any dirty or stupid penalties, and then, obviously, the O-Line destroyed, which is pretty clear when you look at the scoreboard."
Coach Todd Tanasichuk was pleased with the victory, but also wants to make sure that the score doesn't get to his team's head:
"I'm happy with the game, obviously. We executed our plays well, and we were able to run and throw the ball just the way we wanted to. But it's also important for myself and the boys to remember that this Wainwright team is a lot smaller and a lot younger than us, so we can't look at the scoreboard and think that every game is going to be like this. It means a lot to get such a big win at the start of the season, but hopefully that confidence-boost doesn't stray into overconfidence territory."
For Tanasichuk, the key to keeping a level head throughout the season lies in commitment and teamwork.
"Wainwright had some players that were not playing today because they were away doing other sports and things like that. But we've stressed to our boys over and over again the value of being committed to the team and to the sport. We live as a team and die by a team, and we just have to make sure that isn't lost of any of our teammates. If we can do that, we'll be in great shape."
The next two Bengals games will be on the road, first against Cold Lake on September 16, and then against the Lloydminster Mustangs on September 23. The Bengals' next home game will be against the Lloydminster Chargers on September 30.
