“Underdog” Gators Triumph In Playoff Defensive Battle

“Can I get a ‘hell yeah’?” a coach for the MJ Gators shouted to his troops along the sideline.

“Hell yeah,” the U14 players shouted back with just under a minute left to play.

Gone were the days of a lacklustre MJ Mafia - the Gators precursor team in 2024 - as the Gators were on the verge of doing what many thought improbable defeating the MJ Raiders.

Two weeks earlier the Raiders had defeated the Gators 46 - 6. But Friday evening was not as easy of a task.

In a hard fought defensive battle the Gators defeated the Raiders 15 - 2 in Division U14 playoff action in the Kinsmen Moose Jaw Minor Football League.

“It was a redemption game. We changed a few things from last time and it worked for us today,” Corey Harkness Gators head coach said.

Harkness disagreed with the conclusion the Gators were - because of the ups and downs they went through - unlikely participants in the division final.

“Absolutely we thought we have some great players on this team and (could win it all),” he said.

He agreed the Gators believed they were going to have a tough game against the tough Raiders and prepared as such.

“Quite frankly the last game they handed us our lunch and we knew we had to come out a little bit better prepared.”

Defence was key to the Gators win.

“We toughened up our defence We made some key changes to our defence… I can’t speak too highly about my defense. They gave up zero points tonight.”

Another key factor in the Gators’ victory was the lack of penalties they took as a team. In most games, the Gators have been penalized 150 yards well in Friday nights game the penalty yardage added up to about 30.

Prior to Friday evening, the Gators were strong candidates for the most penalized team in the league.

“If you said we were going to have a shutout tonight I told my team that if the Raiders put up three scores we’ll try to put up four scores on the board to win.”

“I thought it would be a dog fight and it was,” Harkness said.

One of the major efforts for the Gators was keying in on the Raiders strong runners.

“We played to contain them well, and I think the boys and girls executed. And that’s the difference today,” he said.

For Harkness the Gators have the best defence in the league and it showed Friday evening.

“They came out hard. They came out with a really different attitude today. They played tough and we just couldn’t match their energy so we…” Raiders head coach Zac Klyne said.

Asked who had the defensive strength between the two teams Klyne said it tipped to the Gators.

“Our defence played hard but we almost relied on them too much. They (the Gators) had long drives on offence and stuff like that,” he said.

He pointed to the Raiders making use of three different quarterbacks throughout the game as to the Raiders ‘ efforts igniting the offence.

“Their defence played great and got a lot of breaks and ours had a lot of three and outs so our defence had to go back out right away.”

Although a tough pill to swallow he was proud of the team’s efforts in the game.

“It was good I can’t complain about the effort. Our team worked hard,” Klyne said.

He pointed out the efforts of Brooks Mihalicz who was one of the team’s onto players. But despite getting injured during the week he tried to work through it but couldn’t.

“It was a fun year. They were a great group of kids. The league was run really well this year. Bryan (Boys) does a great job organizing everything.”

During the final team meeting, the coaches spoke to the team about how well they done over the season and stressed about them coming back next year.

Klyne said he can see most of the players coming back for another year.

“For the most part, they all love being here. They’re all sad right now which means they like to play. They want to be on the team. I think they’ll be like some kids that were here last year, they all came back happy this year. They really want it.”

As for Klyne, who has no children in the system, said he’ll be back next fall as well.

“I tell them every year I’m not coming back next year. I’ve had five years of that. I’ll keep coming back because every year there’s a kid that takes my heart,” he said.