The previous football game results posted by the St. Paul Lions and the Vegreville Vortex prior to their Friday night showdown at St. Paul Regional High School suggested that the Lions would win, and win big.
And that is exactly what happened. The Lions trounced the Vortex 62-13 to improve their record to 4-0 in the Wheatland Football League standings.
The 62 points put on the board by the Lions represented the team’s best scoring effort of the season. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this total was that it was not reliant on one or two veteran players. It was a combination of the team’s verteran players having strong games and younger players stepping up to make major contributions on offence.
It was the intention of the Lions’ coaching staff to get the younger players more game action in order to improve the team’s depth for the rest of this season and beyond.
John Lumby, the Lions offensive coordinator, said he was pleased with how the younger Lions handled the additional minutes on the field.
“I thought they played great. There were some times when they were tested and mistakes were made out there — everyone made mistakes though — but all in all, I thought they came through and stepped up to play a really good game.”
One of the players that stepped up was Parker Lumby. He opened the scoring by receiving a pass from team quarterback Patrick Dion and taking the ball into the end zone.
Later in the quarter, Lions’ rushing leader Donovan Campeau once again showed off his deft speed by running the ball 85 yards into the end zone to grab the Lions a 14-0 lead.
Campeau was not done scoring there. His second touchdown did not require as much running as his team was within five yards of the Vortex goal line. This put the Lions ahead 21-0 with 9:44 remaining in the second.
The situation for the Vortex worsened 34 seconds later. The Lions managed to intercept the ball from the Vortex, and on the counter attack, Dion made a 28-yard touchdown pass to Madison Brousseau to increase the Lions’ lead to 28-0 at 9:10 remaining in the second.
The Vortex broke through with 3:06 remaining in the second to earn their second touchdown of the season.
Nicholas Cheremshnynski, the Vortex quarterback, made a touchdown pass to Maclean Warawa to make the score in the game 28-7.
Donovan Campeau quickly regained momentum for his team. He ran down the field for a 70-yard rushing touchdown. That Lions’ touchdown came with 2:21 remaining in the second.
Parker Lumby earned his second touchdown of the game at 9:25 of the third quarter. He did some effective zig zagging to get away from defenders to run the ball into the end zone. That gave the home team a 42-7 edge.
Liam Krys made it 49-7 with 4:38 remaining in the third. He managed to shake off a crowd of defenders to get to the left side of the field and run the ball into the touchdown zone.
Bradley Dubrule added to the scoring at the 10:05 mark of the final quarter. Within inches of the end zone, he managed to snare a high pass from Parker Lumby. He then dove into the end zone. This earned the Lions a 56-7 advantage.
Marcus Field-Cardinal earned the Lions’ final touchdown of the night by intercepting the ball from the Vortex and then running the ball into the end zone with 6:37 remaining in the fourth. Brousseau missed the PAT after the touchdown so the Lions earned six points on the play.
The Vortex earned one more touchdown before the game was done. Nicholas Cheremshnynski rushed the ball two yards to make the game 62-13.
The Lions will play their last game of a four-game homestand on Friday night against the Holy Rosary Raiders from Lloydminster, the only other undefeated team in the league. The Raiders lead the league with a +182 point differential. The Lions are second in that statistical category with a +115 differential.
This contest has game-of-the-year potential written all over it.
Head Coach Todd Tanasichuk said he is pleased with where his team stands going into Friday night’s showdown.
“Our current record speaks to the great job our coaches did last season when we were so young and inexperienced,” he wrote. “We could see the team’s progress . . . and that has carried over to this year. Our players rare ready to compete at a much higher level now because of the lumps we took last season. We look forward to giving Rosary a good game.”
The battle for sole possession of first place in the league begins at 4 p.m.
