Football Night in Moose Jaw has been warmer in the past, but a pair of championship teams didn’t seem to mind the cold on Friday.

The Lions defeated the Spartans 60-40 to grab the U12 football title in the Moose Jaw Minor Football League, and the Vikings defeated the Spartans 12-2 in the U14 championship game.

Lions head coach Steven MacAuley talked a while after a cold Gatorade shower about winning over a tough Spartans team.

“We needed to put more points on the board for every game we’d played them,” MacAuley said. “And we didn’t in the first three games, so we had to adjust for this game. Leading up to this game in the previous two weeks, obviously conditioning for the weather and practicing for the weather, we had one playoff game in this type of weather, with a little bit higher winds. And we were ready for the cold and ready for everything. We were just a bit more conditioned to play in this weather.”

In the U14 final, which was also between two Moose Jaw teams, the Vikings won 12-2 over the Raiders in a solid performance on both sides of the ball from the winning team. The teams split the other four games this season.

“I think the difference in this game was that… more of a look at trying to get our front line into their linebackers,” said Vikings head coach Brock Montgomery. “They have a great defense, and the key to us winning our game was running behind our O lineman, and trying to get five yards a carry if we could and we were able to do that this evening.”

The Raiders were only able to get a safety, after backing up the Vikings late in the second quarter.

Montgomery said the Raiders were ready with their defence, which didn’t allow much once the Raiders had the ball in the Raiders' end.

“We’ve seen that team play this year multiple times, so we had the defence in place,” he said. “They do have the big receiving route with their tight end that’s hard to cover, and he did have a couple of big catches (Friday). Again, it was a group of kids that, a lot of them have been playing together for four years. And you get those big games, you get these kids playing together and it shows.”

Some teams outside of Moose Jaw weren't able to complete their seasons. With everything going on with COVID, MacAuley said they were just happy to get a season in.

“We did get to lose out on a few games just on some cancellations, but other than that, it was nice to have a great season of football,” MacAuley said. “The kids learned a lot, they had a lot of fun and hopefully we can have another great season next year.”