The Creighton Kodiaks football team fought valiantly against one of Saskatchewan’s best teams last weekend, but would come up short of a historic provincial playoff win.
Creighton lost on the road to the Wakaw Warriors Oct. 29, coming close at different points but ultimately losing 51-16 in a 2A six-man provincial playoff game.
The Kodiaks would strike first, scoring a touchdown and hitting the convert to make it 8-0 Creighton early. The Warriors, ranked as the top six-man football team in Saskatchewan high school football going into playoffs, had not been behind in a game yet this year.
“That's what we wanted to get - an 8-0 lead is exactly how you want to start any game,” said Kodiaks head coach Ryan Karakochuk.
“It was positive, but we couldn’t sustain it. We just made too many mistakes.”
Wakaw would march back and retake the lead, going up 14-8 after one quarter. A Warriors touchdown would make it 22-8 for Wakaw late in the second quarter. Creighton had chances to make up the gap, but ultimately came up short not once but twice.
“We marched the whole field, we got down to their five-yard line and there were about two minutes left - then we fumbled and they jumped on it,” Karakochuk said.
“They were backed up in their own end, they moved the ball a little bit, but then we got the ball back on another great defensive effort and there was about a minute left. We marched down again with about 15 seconds left, we were at their 20. Marcus [Kennedy, the starting quarterback] kinda ran around and found Carson [Straile] wide open. He had one guy to beat and he kinda got held up and dragged his feet - they ruled him down at the one-yard line and the clock ran out.”
While Creighton did score a touchdown and successfully hit the two-point kick, Wakaw put up 22 points in a single quarter and ran away with the lead.
Compounding the situation for the Kodiaks were a series of injuries to many of the team’s top players. The Kodiaks got their second touchdown from Jaxon “Bongo” Smith, who forced his way into the endzone, but Smith injured his knee on the play, ending both his game and the Grade 12’s high school football career. Straile was concussed early in the third quarter, knocking him out of his final high school game as well.
Starting tight end Aidan Joa-Hall, a critical part of Creighton’s pass attack, suffered a high ankle sprain in the first quarter, ending his game, while Payton Pelletier, a key cog of Creighton’s defence and the squad’s backup running back in Straile’s stead, was also concussed late in the second quarter. Defender Kwinton Lycan also was hurt in the third quarter.
“After the game, we had three kids in the hospital in P.A. that we had to make sure were checked out,” Karakochuk said.
The Kodiaks would not manage another score, giving up 29 second half points to Wakaw. Wakaw will move on down the Saskatchewan football pyramid, playing in a provincial six-man semifinal game, but Creighton’s season is now over.
“They were the better team - they have a fantastic team with a lot of skill. We were never really close to winning, but I’d say confidently that we gave them a bit of a scare,” Karakochuk said.
The club still won their third consecutive Ralph Pilz Trophy last month as northern Saskatchewan six-man football champs, beating Cumberland House on the road to win the team’s fifth championship. The Kodiaks wrapped up a 5-1 regular season with a home victory over Pinehouse last month.
The Kodiaks have never won a southern provincial-level game since the program’s creation, coming close last season in a 30-26 loss to Shellbrook on the Kodiaks home field but never winning.
The loss ends the career of several Grade 12 Kodiaks players, including Smith, Straile, Kennedy - who ran for over 100 yards during the game - Taylen Woods, centre Paxton Dareichuk, Tanner Clark and kicker Grace Dubinak, who went two-for-two on converts after taking part in a volleyball tournament in The Pas the day before the game.
The team is tentatively planning to host its annual season wind-up and awards banquet Nov. 30 at the Creighton Community Centre.
