It was so close.
The Creighton Kodiaks football team had their best-ever performance in a provincial conference game last week, even leading at half, but lost 30-26 to Shellbrook in a home heartbreaker.
Creighton, playing their first game in over two years against non-northern league opponents, started slowly against their toughest test of the season despite playing on their home field - the visiting Aardvarks scored a pair of first quarter touchdowns, giving them a 16-0 lead. Despite the early deficit, the Kodiaks clawed their way back, getting up to a 26-24 lead at halftime.
The lead wouldn’t last. Both teams exchanged blows in the second half, with Shellbrook eventually pulling out to a 30-26 lead. With moments to go, the Kodiaks had the ball and gained a chance to make history, but a pair of deep balls ended with a pair of near misses, turning the ball over to the Aardvarks who ran the clock away, ending Creighton’s season.
The loss ends the Kodiaks’ season and the high school football careers of a sextet of Kodiaks seniors - two-way standout corner and running back Noah Olivier, tight end and kicker Myles Patterson, bloodhound linebacker Brenden Haley, defensive captain Davin Eastman, Austin Harrower and Cole Slugoski.
While the result wasn’t a win, it was the closest to a victory a northern team has ever gotten in a conference game against a southern team. It’s also the closest the Kodiaks have gotten to beating southern competition in the program’s six-season history, outdoing a 41-17 loss to Birch Hills in a conference game in 2019.
Head coach Ryan Karakochuk said the game showed progress for the program as a whole, even if the team lost.
“Anyone who was at the game, the way we came back, the way it was a stalemate… it was exciting, not a good result, but as a fan, I think it was something that everyone needed to see that we can compete and see that we’re worthy,” said Karakochuk.
Over the course of the season, the Kodiaks rolled through the league, going 4-1 (the one loss being a forfeit) and winning the Ralph Pilz Trophy as northern champs on their home field. The Aardvarks had a tougher go in a more even conference, going 5-1 but only scoring eight more points than they gave up on the season.
Missing key parts of the team next season due to graduation will be tough for the Kodiaks to get over, but Karakochuk says he hopes next season will be even brighter - possibly even the year that the Kodiaks get over the hump and beat a southern team in conferences.
“We don’t lose our quarterback, we don’t lose our receiver, we don’t lose any of our offensive or defensive line. I think we’re in good shape and we have a ton of Grade 9s that are going to be Grade 10s next year that saw development,” said the coach.
“The future is really bright.”
The Kodiaks will head south and take in a Saskatchewan Roughriders game later this month as part of a campaign with the CFL team’s foundation before holding their annual team banquet in late November.
