Lamb driving force in Vikings playoff win over Souls

Lamb wasn’t just a beast on offence.

Along with seniors Zach Wolfe and Presley Peterson, Lamb played on both sides of the ball.

He was punishing on the defensive side of things as well, which Humenny said made a huge difference.

“Lamb is kind of a tone setter on both sides of the football,” Humenny said. “He’s the kind of guy where he’s not just taking guys down, he’s bringing them down or he’s crushing them.

“One play in particular where he maybe had a chance to go out of bounds, but that’s not even in his vocabulary. And he decides to go hunt a guy right in front of their bench as a tone setting play and crushes someone to the ground. That speaks volumes to both sides of the football. You can see our bench rises and their bench kind of goes a little bit more dejected.”

Lamb credited the entire team for the big win, saying everyone has put in work all season long and that nobody gave up at any point in Thursday’s game, even when things got a little close.

“As a group, we’ve been together five or six years,” he said. “We’re like a bunch of brothers.”

He was also admitted playing on both sides of the ball is tiring, but that he loves it.

“It’s worth it,” he said. “[On defence] just make sure you keep your eyes on the ball, watch for any counters. Just make sure you’re always back a bit. You don’t want the ball going over your head and looking silly.”

Quarterback Damon Dutton was not to be forgotten in the win, as he also threw three touchdown passes — two to Presley Peterson and one to Zach Wolfe — for 270 total yards in the blowout win.

“All those guys are making plays for us,” Humenny said. “Credit to our skilled guys. In the first quarter, we put the ball up top a few times and those guys can make plays and we saw that again. It’s offence by committee but obviously we ran the ball today very well and we’re extremely happy with that.”

There was a point, early in the game, when the game was fairly tight.

With just over four minutes left in the quarter, Evan Hardy scored on a 2-yard touchdown reception to cut the Vikings lead to 21-14.

“It seemed like we were a little bit tentative at times,” Humenny said, referring to that point in the game when it came to his defence. “It”s just the mindset of the guys. I think a lot of the times they’re in the right spot. They’ve just got to be more of a ball hawk and go after it.”

Following that, Lamb went into overdrive, scoring two touchdowns before the half to make it a 35-14 game.

But Lamb wouldn’t have been given the two opportunities on offence if the defence hadn’t have stepped up, which included a Zach Wolfe interception.

The Vikings now move on to the Saskatoon league final next Friday evening at 5:15 p.m. where they’ll face the Tommy Douglas Tigers, who defeated the Bishop J. Mahoney Saints 51-45 in the other semifinal on Thursday.

“Coming in to this week, this was just step one,” Humenny said. “That’s all we talked about, was just Evan Hardy. We were totally focused on the Evan Hardy Souls this week. All I said to the guys in the post-game was next week we’re going to come back on Friday at 5 o’clock and we’re going to play a team that’s got white jerseys on. Doesn’t matter who that is, if it’s Tommy Douglas or BJM, we’re going to come to Saskatoon as the number one seed.

“This will be step two of three for us and we’re just excited to be in the city final. It’s going to be fun.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Lamb driving force in Vikings playoff win over Souls

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