Greenall, Miller walk away winners of high school football city championships

It was the biggest night of the year for high school football in Regina.

Both the 5A and 6A city championship games took place on Friday.

The heavily favoured Greenall Griffins walked away with the RIFL 5A championship, but not without quite the battle.

The Griffins topped the Sheldon Williams Spartans 25-22 in overtime.

Greenall dominated in the regular season with a perfect 6-0 record. Sheldon Williams, on the other hand, had a solid 4-2 record.

However, anyone who didn’t know the colour of the jerseys heading into Friday night’s game wouldn’t have guessed the uneven records.

The Spartans came out to a strong start in the first quarter.

The first possession of the game belonged to Sheldon Williams. Running back and defensive lineman Charlie Parks had one of the game’s first big plays, trucking through four defenders to make significant progress downfield.

The team progressed close to the 20 yard line, and Eimantis Skridla kicked in a field goal for the first three points of the game.

The Spartans’ defense managed to hold off Greenall on the next possession, highlighted by a crushing sack from Parks.

Not much later, Skridla kicked another field goal to make it 6-0.

The Griffins headed into the second quarter without a point. They knew they had to get something going, and fast.

They did just that.

Greenall quarterback Zachery Kucylum launched a laser to receiver Tate Olsen, who snagged it with ease. After a kicked-in point, the Griffins lead 7-6 with about seven minutes left in the quarter.

The second quarter marked an upswing in the big play for both teams. Receivers were making longer catches, but Greenall definitely came out on top in the frame.

The score stayed stagnant until late in the frame.

On two separate drives, Marcus Butz made a 20-yard and a 41-yard catch to score a pair of touchdowns.

Greenall led 21-6 leading into halftime.

At the halfway point, things looked bleak for the Spartans. With an explosive second quarter, Greenall grabbed all of the momentum. It wasn’t an insurmountable lead, but it’s tough for any team to come back from a scoreless quarter.

However, they proved they were capable of doing just that.

Sheldon Williams quarterback Tyson Green made the first significant drive of the half about three minutes into the quarter.

He made a massive running play, worth about 35 yards. Greenall also took an offside penalty, putting the Spartans at 1st & goal.

The team was able to push it over the line on the first down, and grab the 2 point conversion. An earlier 1 point safety let them make the game significantly closer: the Griffins led 21-15.

The fourth started off on the wrong foot for Greenall, as they took a penalty sending them back to the 30 yard line.

Even after registering a single-point safety, the fourth got even worse for the Griffins, as the Spartans inched closer to the endzone late in the quarter.

Parks trucked through a pair of defenders with 4:30 left to secure a touchdown, tying the game up at 22-22.

Regulation time came to an end without another score. Greenall managed to make a solid drive and cap it off with a Kaeden Bzdel field goal to secure the victory, and the championship.

The fans’ cheers at the field level were deafening, and the team couldn’t have been more happy.

Kuculym was nearly at a loss for words, with a huge grin on his face in a post-game interview with 980 CJME.

“Oh, man, I’m feeling ecstatic right now. Just off a big win, and in overtime,” he gushed.

“It feels unbelievable.”

It took a while to get some momentum going throughout the game, but he said he was able to stay collected throughout.

“I just had to be calm. I knew that our team would be going. I knew that our defense would pick it up and, for sure, stomp em.”

Miller tops LeBoldus

Offensive lineman Ben Schmidt and runningback Marshall Erichsen accept the 6A city championship trophy on Nov. 5, 2021. (Dominick Lucyk/980 CJME)

The LeBoldus Golden Suns couldn’t keep up with the Miller Marauders.

The two teams have had a longstanding rivalry, playing against each other in many RIFL 6A championship games.

Miller took the win this year, with a convincing score of 27-9.

The biggest high school football game of the year in Regina started out as a slow-paced, defensive battle.

The competitors headed into Friday’s matchup with identical 5-1 regular season records.

Throughout the first quarter, it seemed like the teams were evenly matched. It was a defensive battle, with a fair number of penalties.

LeBoldus had the first real scoring chance of the game. A few good rushing plays got them to the 30 yard line with 4:14 left in the opening quarter.

Kicker Jack Dolan attempted the field goal, but it went wide. The game was still scoreless.

The first came and went without a single score.

However, Miller was able to make something work in the second.

A punt down to LeBoldus’ 15 yard line was fumbled, and the Marauders were able to take possession at around the 19 yard marker.

However, quarterback Winston Chapman was sacked for a loss of yards. With no other options on the third down, Miller sent out kicker John Grace to go for the field goal.

Despite an awkward bounce off the post, the 28-yard attempt was good. Miller led 3-0.

The Golden Suns weren’t content to go the entire half without scoring, however.

With five seconds left, Dolan was able to connect on a 13 yard field goal attempt, tying it up at 3 to end the half.

The momentum swung around to Miller at the start of the third.

On the very first possession, running back Marshall Erichsen took the game into his own hands.

He ran for four first downs in five possessions, then ran in a touchdown to give Miller the 10-3 lead.

It was all uphill from there for the Marauders.

Zach Weisbeck caught a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, and Grace added a field goal to widen the lead to 20-3.

When it seemed like it couldn’t get worse for LeBoldus, Chapman nailed a long-bomb 62 yard pass to Kenton Appel, further widening the lead to 27-3.

With just over a minute left in the game, Golden Suns quarterback Jack Foord ran in his team’s only touchdown. They weren’t able to make the 2-point conversion, and Miller walked away the winners at 27-9.

Erichsen was battered and bruised, but feeling great after hoisting the trophy.

“I feel amazing. I started at Miller in Grade 9. I’ve worked four years with this in mind. My senior year, winning this thing. It finally happened,” he said with a grin.

While his team struggled to generate offense in the first half, he still felt like they could turn things around.

“Our team has always scored the majority of our points in the second half, so I was pretty confident going into the locker room being tied … We all figured out what we were going to do, what was working, we decided to run it down, we did, and it worked.”

After missing a season to the pandemic, it couldn’t have been a better cap on his high school career.

“To finally have something to hold on to for the rest of my life, saying that I won city championship when I was in Grade 12 is amazing. It’s overwhelming because of how much work my whole team put in. It’s amazing.”