Meredith Kerr
Journal Staff
The St. Paul Lions won 28-7 against the Bonnyville Voyageurs in their first game under the new lights at St. Paul Regional High School on Friday.
“I think our boys were pumped for the first game to play out here. I think we had a good crowd, (you) can’t really see them out there,” said Lions head coach Mark Tichkowsky, speaking of the evening game.
Despite the temperature of -5 Celsius, by the end of the game, most of the crowd that had gathered in the stands to watch stuck around until the end of the game, cheering for the Lions all the way.
The Lions gave them reason to cheer, with touchdowns by Kyler Tichkowsky and Owen Breast, and conversion kicks on both by Ethan Boisclair for a score of 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.
A run and a kick by Boisclair in the second quarter ended the first half of the game with the Lions ahead 21-7.
An exciting third quarter gave the crowd more reason to cheer. Bonnyville was 10-yards away from a touchdown when Lion Ty Smereka got the ball. One 90-yard run later, the score was 28-7 for the Lions.
“When you’re caught up in the season and you hit really hard teams and you can’t really get a break play like that . . . it feels really good and it just gets you pumped for the rest of the game. You kind of forget about being tired in the moment, it picks the rest of the team up and pushes you towards that win,” said Smereka.
“We were able to score points in offense and defense pretty much shut them down the whole game so when that happens it’s a good chance of winning. Defense had lots of interceptions and turnovers are the key,” said Tichkowsky. “We’re young, but we have a lot of talent out there and we’re able to match up quite nicely today.”
The Lions are now 3-2 on the season and are scheduled to play the Royals in Cold Lake on Thursday. If they win, it will be the team's 100th regular season win as an organization.
“We have to get a good week of practice in and then we’re looking at playoffs. Hopefully we finish ahead of Bonnyville and finish third in the league and then hopefully we see what happens in the round of playoffs,” said Tichkowsky
After 35 years, the team's overall record is now 99 wins, 120 losses, and two ties. As of 1999 it was only 21 wins, 83 losses and two ties, so the team has gone 78 wins, 37 losses since 2000, according to long-time football coach Todd Tanasichuk.
