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Crusaders offence stalled in loss to Royals

Sep 23, 2016 | 9:17 AM

The John Paul II Crusaders are no longer undefeated.

They only managed to score eight points in Thursday afternoon’s 36-8 loss to the Martensville Royals.

“We did a lot of things poorly on both sides of the ball today,” Crusaders head coach Bruce Yockey said following the loss. “We just couldn’t ever seem to gain any momentum. If we did, we’d get something going and then we’d either take a poor penalty, fumble the ball, [or have a] missed assignment. We had nothing going today.”

Indeed, the home side struggled on many offensive possessions. The fumbles were numerous, especially in the first half, and dropped passes were also a common sight at Crusaders Field.

At the half, however, the game was still in reach at 16-0.

The Crusaders would gain some momentum to start the second half when running back Jacob Stynsky scored on a long running touchdown five minutes into the third quarter to cut the lead to 16-8. But Royals quarterback Ethan Moran ran one in himself for a score late in the third, and then found Connor McKay in the endzone to make it 29-8 with 8:26 left in the final quarter.

The Royals would add one more score to make the final 36-8.

“Martensville played a really good strong phyiscal game and we just didn’t answer back with them at all today,” Yockey said. “I thought our defence played well. I thought they held us in. It was 16-8 and they had been holding strong for us. Offensively we just didn’t move the ball at all consistently and couldn’t gain any momentum to turn the game around.”

Stynsky went down with an apparent injury in the fourth quarter, and he limped off the field. But Yockey said a number of players are just a little bit banged up – Stynsky among them – and that they’ll simply rest up for next week.

The next opponent will be the 0-2 Delisle Rebels, who play Warman on Friday in the third game of their season.

That game is set for Thursday, Sept. 29 at 4 p.m. at Crusaders Field.

“We’re in the toughest part of the schedule,” Yockey said. “We knew Martensville was a good, strong, physical team and they showed up and played a really good game and executed well. We’ll bounce back. It wasn’t our greatest effort today … but we’ll get it turned around.”

 

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.Kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11