Brendon Weber's touchdown score midway through the fourth quarter proved to be just enough for the win as the Yorkton PeeWee Gridders football team upped their record to 3-0 with a come-from-behind win over the visiting Regina Vikings Saturday afternoon in Regina Minor Football League action at Kinsmen Century Field.
Despite playing a Regina club with a quarterback who was easily throwing 30 and 40-yard long bombs, the Gridders were able to hold on for a close win.
Jason Farrell, Gridders head coach, said it was a strange occurrence that day.
"It was a really weird day," he says. "We've turned the responsibility of the game over to the team and in the second half, we asked 'who's going to step it up?'"
Weber apparently was listening during that halftime pep talk and delivered one of the longest touchdown scores of the season with time running down in the game.
"It was his second effort," insists Farrell of the winning play. "He was down (he got back up) and he broke a few tackles."
Weber said his run was just a matter of getting the ball in his hands and going with it, and also insisted that he wasn't going at his fastest speed.
"I don't know..." he said. "I just run. I didn't run my fastest (either)."
He said the defence was what kept them in the game so long and that "we blocked really well."
He also added that this year "feels so much better than last year. It's a really big difference."
Farrell said a lot of the responsibility for the outcome of the game goes to the team's six captains. On offence, Ryan Krochak, Nick Payne, Isaac Pasloski. On defence, Chris P, Darius Haberstock and Brett H.
Regina opened the scoring early in the game on an 18-yard touchdown run and they made it 8-0 on a two-point convert. Yorkton came close shortly after when they got the ball to the Viking goal line however a turnover put the ball in the opposite direction.
The Gridders got on the scoreboard when Haberstock ran the ball the length of the field, returning a Viking punt into the end zone. Yorkton then set up for a two-point convert in hopes of tying the match but a penalty for an illegal block pushed them back.
Weber scored his winning touchdown in the fourth when he took the ball 65 yards to take a 12-8 lead. Regina put themselves in position to regain the lead but they were called for an illegal pass which nullified a 20-yard gain.
