The St. Paul Lions’ playoff season ended on Saturday as the team lost in the semi-finals to the Holy Rosary Raiders 13-7, in Lloydminster.
“Due to a quirk in the schedule, the third ranked Leos faced the number one ranked Raiders in Saturday’s semifinal,” says coach Todd Tanasichuk, via email. “The Raiders weren’t too fond of the matchup either, as the Lions have given them their biggest test of the season back in week two, when the Raiders scored a last-minute touchdown to beat St. Paul 28-22.”
Neither team scored in the first quarter of Saturday’s game, but Holy Rosary completed a 30-yard touchdown to move up 7-0 in the second. Although the Lions came to within the Raider’s one-yard line, the score remained 7-0 at half.
“Both offences sustained many drives which fell short in their opponent’s end, forcing the other team to begin drives with bad field position,” says Tanasichuk, adding, “Both defences bent but didn’t break to keep the game low scoring.”
In the fourth quarter, the Lions allowed another Raiders’ touchdown. The Lions blocked the convert attempt for a score of 13-0 with six minutes on the clock. The Lions rallied back and a third-down gamble paid off as Jason Jubinville would “punch the ball into the end zone to make the score 13-7 with under three minutes left in the game,” recalls the coach.
The Lions made a “desperate final play” but were unable to score any more points.
This season was the eighth time in nine years the Lions finished in the top four of the Wheatland Football League. Mark Proskiw was the league’s leading receiver with 631 yards receiving on 32 catches.
“Both those stats are Lions team records,” says Tanasichuk.
