Hilltops defeat Thunder in PFC championship game 21-13

The Saskatoon Hilltops are once again champions of the Prairie Football Conference after they defeated the Regina Thunder 21-13 at SMF Field on Sunday afternoon.

“This was a grind all day,” Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant said after the championship victory. “I love how this team competed, how the coaches stayed with the plan and ultimately we were rewarded for staying with the process.”

Sargeant was right when he said the game was a grind and it could be described that way for both teams.

The first quarter saw both offences looking stuck and looking for answers. It was only 2-0 for the Hilltops after the first quarter.

The second saw much of the same, until Boston Davidsen was able to explode for a 47-yard touchdown run to give the Hilltops a 9-3 lead heading into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Thunder came out slinging the football. Within the first two minutes of the third, Thunder receiver Austin Wood  made two big catches on passes from quarterback Ethan Hugg to put his team up 10-9.

That momentum continued as the Thunder scored again in the third on a field goal to make it 13-9, but that’s as much as the visitors would put up on the scoreboard.

In the fourth quarter, the Hilltops saw their offence finally wake up. Trey Reider was dominant finding receivers and the run game from Davidsen continued to run like a well-oiled machine.

The Hilltops picked up a safety and rouges and that was followed by receiver Evan Ward making a big catch to get the Hilltops in touchdown range when it was 13-12. They marched the ball to the red zone and let Davidsen score his second touchdown of the game, putting them up 19-13.

The Saskatoon defence held firm and was able to come away with the victory.

Sargeant credited his team’s heart after the game for getting the Hilltops to the finish.

“We’ve just got that championships heart,” he stated. “We’ve got a tradition that’s second to none and a belief system. The players were saying, ‘Coach, we’ve got this’ and they did!  We flipped the field with the wind, the crowd was outstanding and the offence made plays when they needed to. It was a a great gutsy win that these fifth-year players deserved.”

He added this was not an easy game against their provincial rivals.

“We had to put to everything on the line to beat Regina,” Sargeant stated. “You throw out all the stats at the end of the day when you get going against these guys and we had to do everything in our power to get success. You know what? We did it. We just wanted to live another week and awesome!”

As mentioned, Davidsen not only had two touchdowns, he also had another game where he recorded more than 100 rushing yards, with 161 yards on 21 carries. He had nothing but praise for his teammates after.

“It’s less about me and more about my teammates. If I’m out there one on 12, I’m going backwards every single play. It’s when those guys work together, that’s when those big plays come. We work together,” he said.

When trailing in the third quarter, Davidsen also credited his team’s mindset for helping push through the adversity.

“I think we just had this sense where we’ve worked too hard to let this go now. We just worked hard and figured it out,” he added.

While he was happy with how far his team had come since the start of the season and its previous battles against the Hilltops, Thunder head coach Scott MacAulay wasn’t pleased seeing his team let a 13-9 lead slip away.

“I’m not happy with the end result, but I think we got better from the very first game we played against them and came out here and gave a good showing,” MacAulay said.

“We basically shot ourselves in the foot there once we got that lead — not catching the ball in the air, taking some penalties that put us in bad situations and giving them good field position. I’m happy with our guys with how they played the full 60 and worked together. We gave a good showing, but not good enough.”

MacAulay said at halftime, his message to his players was to do their job and play with pride.

“Leave it all on the field. I think they did that, but we stalled with the last eight minutes in the game and it’s not good enough,” he added.

MacAulay added the future for his team is bright and noted the Thunder will be back.

The Hilltops will celebrate for now, but shift their attention to an even bigger game next week. They’ll play St. Clair based out of Windsor on Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. at the SMF Field in the CJFL semifinal.