Vikings Advance To League Final

It was a game of incomplete passes, turnovers, bobbled kicks mixed in with a bunch of runs that saw the regular season champions the U14 Vikings defeat the U14 Gators 36 - 0.

For the Vikings it’s a trip to next Saturday’s league championship. For the Gators it’s a wrap for the season.

For players on both sides it was time to celebrate weeks of hard work on a chilly Saturday evening.

A missed pass - MJ Independent photo

For Gators head coach Jordan Taylor it would have been nice to pulled off a Cinderella victory and defend the team’s 2025 championship victory.

“It was a disappointing outcome but that’s the way football is - someone has got to win and someone has got to lose,” Taylor said.

Despite the semi-final loss he typified the season as being a great season for the squad.

“We had some highs. We had some lows. Everything you want to get out of a football season,” he said.

Taylor said the biggest high of the season was winning the home and away Swamp Bowl over the Swift Current Steelers.

Asked who had the most fun Taylor or the kids he said “good question. It’s probably a toss up.”

He said the players learnt football but also valuable life skills during the season.

“Just the fundamentals and that’s always the goal - good tackling, good blocking and good technique “ he said adding that teaching players to be better people “is always the goal.”

“How to be a teammate, how to show up, how to help out” were some of the intangibles players learnt by being part of the team.

With the Gators out it’s now time for the Vikings to get ready for a very tough Raiders team in next weekend’s U14 league championship.

“It was a good game. It was a good game to start the playoffs. We made a few changes and put some kids in some different spots to prepare for the Gators,” Vikings head coach Brock Montgomery said.

He sees next weekend’s championship showdown as “fun for the kids. Some of these kids have been playing here since they were Razorbacks (eight and nine year olds). For some of the kids it’s their last game in Moose Jaw Minor Football so hopefully they can come up with a win.”