The Winnipeg High School Football League (WHSFL) concludes its season this Friday. The Steinbach Sabres will meet the Sturgeon Heights Huskies in the Kas Vidruk division bowl game at Investors Group Field.
Sturgeon has had a different road to the final being from the ‘AAA’ league. The Huskies denounced the ‘AAA’ Dakota Lancers in the quarter finals and the ‘AA’ River East Kodiaks in the semis to earn their spot in the bowl game.
For Sturgeon to have success, they’ll have to run. Running the ball for the Huskies is Kaeden Corrie who has averaged close to 12 yards a carry this season. In 95 carries this year Corrie has 1082 yards and 6 touchdowns.
Thankfully for Corrie he has two monsters to run between in Brock Gutowski and Matthew Iezzi.
Along with running back Kaeden Corrie, Coach Eric Vincent describes these three as “Our three strongest players.”
On the defensive side of the ball the Huskies have had a couple of playmakers. Safety Andrew Delamare had a pick 6 against the Lancers this season. Senior Liam O’ Brien is a middle linebacker. O’ Brian runs the defence and will be all over the field during the run game.
Steinbach made their way to the bowl game by defeating Myles Mac Buckeyes 33-17 in the quarters and St.Paul’s Crusaders 31-9 in the semis.
For the Steinbach Sabres beating St.Paul’s was huge, especially when people had counted them out this season.
Quarterback CJ Knelsen explained “It’s really special to be playing in this game with this group of guys especially after losing so many seniors and being told by a lot of people we wouldn’t be good this year and we’d be lucky to get 4 wins.”
Including the playoffs, Steinbach has now doubled that win total.
Before the game against the Crusaders, Steinbach’s Logan Beckman said “If our defence does what we usually do- create turnovers, and play smart football that would really help towards a victory over St. Paul’s.”
That’s exactly what the Sabres did. Right before the first half was over, St.Paul’s was driving but threw an interception in the end zone. This was the first turnover and likely a game changer.
From that point on the Sabres kept the throttle on full force. CJ Knelsen talked about his team’s performance.
“Not letting up, keeping the pressure on, staying focused after getting a comfortable lead was great to see in such a big game.”
The Sabres have had a great season this far but there is one last accomplishment on their minds.
“It’s great that we’ve gotten this far but nobody’s going to be satisfied unless we get that ring” added Knelsen.
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