The Winnipeg High School Football League’s St.Paul’s Crusaders are traveling to Regina to face one of the country’s best. On Wednesday, August 31st the Crusaders take on the LeBoldus Golden Suns in a battle of the prairies.
St.Paul’s had a good season last year. The Crusaders went 7-0 in the regular season but met their match in the championship game and fell to the Vincent Massey Trojans 22-12.
For LeBoldus, winning has been everything. The past four seasons the Golden Suns have won their conference, city and provincial championships.
The LeBoldus Golden Suns’ offence can be described as balanced and aggressive. The Suns will run, pass and use play action out of multiple sets in attempt to keep teams guessing. On Defense, LeBoldus will be very aggressive.
Offensively, The Crusaders work very hard to be a well-balanced team that can run and pass with equal effectiveness. St.Paul’s defense is hoping to integrate players who have not necessarily played together and looking for aggressive play.
The St.Paul’s Crusaders are heading into this game like any other pre-season matchup, “Evaluate what you have and ‘work out the kinks’ so to speak,” mentioned head coach Stacy Dainard. “As this is a special match-up against a very good team there is heightened interest and excitement.”
The Crusaders have had a pretty good camp. There have been no surprises at this point in time. St.Paul’s roster is completely set by pre-season but their depth chart “Is always in a relatively fluid state,” added Dainard.
As every year goes, some faces are harder to replace than others. We talked to Stacy about which players that graduated are the biggest shoes to fill. Stacy explained, “That is a tough question. We graduated some very talented players but the skill and leadership of two offensive linemen, Matt Kaneski and Jacob Stevens, will be hard to replace.”
During Wednesday’s game most of the starters will play a little more than one half as requested by the LeBoldus Suns.
Stacy Dainard is in his 15th season as head coach of the Crusaders while Tom Foord is coaching in his 11th year.
When these two football schools meet in Regina on Wednesday there should be plenty of excitement. The Golden Suns are the team to beat in the 4A Schwann Conference in Regina, while the St.Paul’s Crusaders have been a near perfect team every season in the WHSFL.
We predict that this should be a tight football game. Some of these players will probably already have played against each other at the Canada Cup. One question remains, who will win the prairie bowl?
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