The Creighton Kodiaks played their first game in nearly two years last week, ending with a resounding win in unfamiliar territory.
Playing their first-ever game against the Ahtahkakoop Titans Sept. 22, the Kodiaks headed home with an 81-0 victory. Creighton had a 38-point lead by the end of the first quarter and was up 60-0 at halftime, rotating the lineup to include the team’s younger players and giving the vets some rest.
The win gave the Kodiaks a 1-1 record - the team received a forfeit loss from not holding their scheduled season opener against the Senator Myles Venne School (SMVS) Huskies earlier this month.
Kodiaks head coach Ryan Karakochuk said the score was not the most important part of the day - getting the players back on a field for the first time in eons was.
“It brought a smile to my face, for two reasons. One, we got to play, so it was exciting watching the kids’ faces and how excited they were the whole day. Number two is we got everybody in the game,” Karakochuk said.
“You don’t want to blow out a team, that wasn’t our intention, but our intention was to play good, use the skills we’ve taught them and see how they performed in an actual game. They’ve been practicing so long that you don’t know how that will translate to an actual game. We were impressed by the result and the fact the kids took what we taught them.”
Creighton’s high school football team hasn’t played a game since Oct. 26, 2019, when the then-northern champion Kodiaks lost 41-17 to the Birch Hills Marauders in a snow-filled provincial conference game. Six hundred and ninety six days later, the team got a chance to play again at Ahtahkakoop - with most of the team’s former leaders having since graduated high school. Karakochuk said while the team has less experience than those that came before - owing to the pandemic-dashed season last year - he has been impressed by the team’s leadership abilities.
“I'm not just saying this but I think this is one of our best leadership groups that we've had in a long time,” said the coach.
“It’s how mature they are and how they do what we ask them and they help us with the younger guys - that's number one. I've been very impressed with that aspect and that just shows the character of the personalities. As far as the playing, I didn't know what to expect. Most of our senior guys are in those skilled positions and in those positions of impact and they led the way, they started the game with great intensity and the hits and touchdowns and the runs... they set the tone and that's what we needed.”
The Kodiaks will face a tougher test for their second game Sept. 29, on their home field against rivals Cumberland House. The Charlebois Community School Voyageurs will make their first appearance at Creighton’s Oval of Dreams since fall 2019, with the game starting at 4 p.m. local time, 3 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
Through two games, Cumberland House has gone 2-0, beating both SMVS and Ahtahkakoop.
“I expect them to be well-coached because I know [Cumberland House head coach] Brent [Tunstall] and I know the history of our rivalry,” Karakochuk says.
“We played them in the northern final two years ago. They also handled Ahtahkakoop quite easily the week that we had to forfeit our game and beat SMVS last week, so they’re coming into Creighton with a 2-0 record.”
The two teams are likely to finish on top of the four-team loop this season and are expected to face off once again in the Northern Saskatchewan Football League (NSFL) final for the Ralph Pilz Trophy. However, this year won’t see the final game played in Prince Albert like in years past - this time, due in part to pandemic concerns, the top team in the league will host the game and have home field advantage. This week’s game could determine who is the favourite going into that game, with the side effect of the winner likely hosting the final game as they would hold an advantage in any needed tiebreaker.
“If we win this game, I think we're in the driver's seat to win first, because we would hold the tiebreaker, even though we had to forfeit our first game and it gave us a loss. We still get to play everyone else in the league one more time,” said Karakochuk.
“I think it’s going to be a slugfest and it’s going to be fun. I think our guys are up for a bigger challenge.”
