The tension and animosity on the local gridiron was palpable throughout the showdown between the St. Paul Lions and the Bonnyville Voyageurs. Fueling the local team's intensity was a desire for revenge against their longtime rivals.
The tension and animosity on the local gridiron was palpable throughout the showdown between the St. Paul Lions and the Bonnyville Voyageurs.
Fueling the local team's intensity was a desire for revenge against their longtime rivals.
“We have been at each other for 31 years Bonnyville and St. Paul,&” said Lions head coach Todd Tanasichuk. “A lot of the time they have gotten the better of us and over the past decade we have been able to even up the score a bit. They came out and beat us last season on our home field for the first time in 13 years so we wanted to come out and get a bit of payback.&”
For the majority of this game, the Lions were firing on all cylinders on both ends of the ball to earn a 30-7 win and a 3-0 record.
On the defensive side, the Lions forced a lot of two and outs forced a lot of fumbles and made a lot of tackles and sacks that frustrated the Voyageurs offence. The Voyageurs' attackers wore looks of irritation and frustration throughout the four-quarter contest.
Tanasichuk says the success that the Lions earned on defense came as a result of everyone working as a cohesive unit.
“I tell our boys that playing defense is like an engine. If one part of the engine doesn't work the whole engine doesn't work. You have to work hard as a group and we did. We took away the long pass, they tried to bootleg a couple of times and we got pressure on them when they did.&”
The Lions defensive corps particularly keyed in on #31 for the Voyageurs, Reid Skrypichayko. A vast majority of the offensive attempts made by Bonnyville did flow through Skrypichayko, the quarter back of the team. He tried to engineer long passing plays and rushing plays, but with the exception of a sensational 65+ yard rush late in the fourth quarter to get his team their only touchdown, he was shut down effectively.
While Bonnyville largely relied on one man to determine its offence, the Lions made a statement that this is a team with a lot of offensive weapons.
The Voyageurs keyed in on the Lions' Donovan Campeau, which led to the Lions having to showcase its diverse offence.
“They were really keying in on Donovan and they did a pretty good job on Donovan, who is a great running back.&” said Tanasichuk. “We have other guys that can hurt you though. I thought Liam Krys stepped up. Simon Chamberland had a great touchdown run that was called off. Madison Brousseau is a great weapon for us and Patrick Dion is as well.&”
Dion once again led the way on offence with a big touchdown. For the second week in a row he was able to make a great 50-yard touchdown run down centerfield to score points for his team. That came in the third quarter.
Also scoring an impressive rushing touchdown down centerfield was Krys, who also was a stalwart defensively. He earned one of his team's two pass interceptions.
Madison Brousseau provided the first 10 points that the Lions earned in the contest. He rushed the ball into the end zone for the first of four Lions touchdowns on the day. He later added an impressive field goal from 26 yards.
Despite being shadowed effectively, Campeau still led the way for the Lions with 101 rushing yards. He managed to dive his way into the end zone in the third quarter to give his team a 30-0 lead.
Bonnyville played its most inspired football of the game in the last eight minutes of the final quarter. In that time frame the team earned their lone touchdown, they earned a pass interception to stop a Lions offence that was close to the red zone and a couple of nice passing plays were made to gain over 20 yards up the field.
Tanasichuk admitted that in the practices leading up to this game, the players were not displaying the same emotional intensity that they did prior to their Sept.11 showdown with Lloydminster. Improving in this area will be a focus of practices this week heading into Friday's matchup against the Vegreville Vortex (5 p.m. start time).
He told that the Journal that the Lions are still “ a young team that is inexperienced with winning.&” He is pleased with how the younger players on this team are acquitting themselves three weeks into the season.
“They are doing little things every week to get better and better. I had a couple of rookies tonight that made tackles that never made tackles before. They are beginning to understand their particular assignments more and are making positive contributions to our team.&”
Tanasichuk says that the Vegreville matchup could provide a good opportunity for some of these younger players to get some more playing time.
In three games Vegreville has been outscored 132-7. In three games the Lions have outscored its opposition 113-47.
Lions Week Three Statistics:
SCORING:
Madison Brousseau - 1 TD rushing, 1 FG, 2 converts = 11 points
Patrick Dion - 1 TD rushing, 1 convert = 7 points
Liam Krys - 1 TD rushing = 6 points
Donovan Campeau - 1 TD rushing = 6 points
RUSHING:
Campeau - 101 yrds on 17 carries
Dion - 77 yards on 9 carries
Krys - 62 yards on 6 carries
Brousseau - 13 yards on 3 carries
Christian Laramee - 8 yrds on 1 carry.
PASSING:
Dion - 8/15 for 138 yards. 1 INT. 0 TD.
RECEIVING:
Brousseau - 2 for 61 yards
Campeau - 2 for 27 yards
Laramee - 2 for 25 yards
Simon Chamberland - 1 for 15 yards
Krys - 1 for 10 yards
FG - Brousseau 1/1 from 26 yards.
TACKLING:
BRAD DUBRULE - 10
SPENCER GRALING - 9
JON KOTOWICH (#18) - 7
MATT MOHYLUK - 4
MATT KOTOWICH - 4
SHAYNE HURTUBISE - 4
LIAM KRYS - 4
SIMON CHAMBERLAND - 3
BRYDEN BULL (#42) - 3
WILL SPACIL - 3
DONOVAN CAMPEAU - 2
CHRISTIAN LARAMEE - 2
MADISON BROUSSEAU - 1
TRISTAN STRIHAVKA - 1
DYLAN WIESE - 1
RYAN CAMPBELL - 1
AUSTIN CAMPBELL - 1
NATHANIEL JACKSON (#5) - 1
JESSIE CHORNOHUS - 1
KALE LOGAN - 1
SACKS:
JON KOTOWICH - 2
INTERCEPTIONS:
LIAM KRYS - 1
MATT KOTOWICH - 1
PUNTS - MADISON BROUSSEAU - 2 FOR 40 YARDS
