Swift Current's Marcus Mayall stiff arms a Vanier defender to the ground during Satuday's 28-21 win.

Both teams are young and inexperienced, but both teams put up a good fight in the season opener between the Vanier Vikings and Swift Current Colts.

 

The Colts picked up their first win at Gutheridge Field in four years on Saturday afternoon as they beat the Vikings, 28-21.

 

The Vikings were their own worst enemy in the game as they committed 12 penalties for 120 yards.  The biggest one came late in the fourth quarter after running back Drew Nimigeers scored from six yards out to tie the game at 21-21, but an objectionable conduct penalty after the play was applied on the kickoff and set up the Colts’ winning drive.

 

“The way it ended, undisciplined, we took I don’t know how many penalties in the last quarter,” said Vikings head coach Ryan Gottselig.  “It’s disappointing that it was a discipline thing that hurt us.”

 

Gottselig pointed to a lack of veterans as the biggest contributing factor to the lack of discipline in the game.  The coaches tried to end the trash talking throughout the game, but it didn’t work.

 

“We’ve got two Grade 12s on the team, sometimes you lean on your players to squash that as much as your coaches and I don’t know if we have that voice right now,” he said.  “Hopefully a couple of leaders step up and take responsibility for that and the team buys in because it’s got to get figured out.”

 

The game was back-and-forth throughout the second half and after Vanier went in front with 3:57 to go in the fourth quarter, their objectionable conduct penalty set Swift Current up nicely.

 

The Colts moved the ball up field and Adam Larochelle picked up the game winning score with a three-yard touchdown run.  Hayden Capelle picked off Vanier quarterback Rylan Blacklaws on the ensuing drive to end the game.

 

Swift Current head coach Derek Murdoch was extremely happy with the performance put up by his team in the win.

 

“We talked this week about lets just worry about what we can control and we had Grade 9s on the field and battle through a lot of injuries,” he said.

 

“We didn’t start out really crisp offensively and left a lot of points on the board with those two field goals (in the first half), but we still got points out of both those drives.  We talked at halftime that if we finished some drives, we were confidence that our offence was going to move the ball.”

 

Vanier opened the scoring midway through the first quarter with Nimegeers scoring his first of three touchdowns in the game at the 5:45 mark.  A Swift Current drive stalled deep in Vanier territory and Zac Nickel nailed a 25-yard field goal to make it 7-3 after the first.

 

A three-yard touchdown by Nimegeers late in the second quarter put Vanier up 14-3, but Swift Current was able to respond with a nice drive and another 25-yard field goal by Nickel.

 

The Colts came out strong in the second half and Marcus Mayall took a screen pass 66 yards to the end zone as he just ran past the Vikings defence.  A two-point conversion tied the game at 14-14.

 

A one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Grady Lamontagne on the Colts’ next drive put them in front 21-14.

 

The score stayed that way until late in the fourth quarter when Nimegeers put his team in front only to have Swift Current answer after the penalty.

 

“Tons of positive, especially the way we ran the football really happy about that, a couple of defensive back here or there, but ultimately it was good,” said Gottselig after the close loss.  

 

Vanier finished with 283 yards along the ground, led by Kelton Kouri, who had six carries for 93 yards.  Jackson Klein finished with eight carries for 79 yards.

 

The passing game struggled with Blacklaws making his first career start.  He went 8-for-14 with 45 yards and an interception.

 

Mayall made plays for Swift Current throughout the game and finished with nine catches for 148 yards.  Lamontagne threw for 214 yards on 16-of-22 passing.

 

“Guys are working so hard and they’re there every day,” added Murdoch.  “This is the first time we won here since the league semifinal four years ago, so none of these guys had won on this field.  This is a special day for the Swift Current Colts.”

 

Both teams will be back in action next Saturday with Swift Current hosting Central and Vanier traveling up to Yorkton.