Mother Nature was not cooperating on Saturday, but that did not stop the Yorkton Minor Football grade seven and eight team from hosting the Moosomin Generals at Century Field for a cold and wet game.
The lousy weather cut both teams' playbooks in half and what followed was a hard hitting 60-minute ground game battle; A battle that in the end was won by Yorkton 20-14, a much closer game than the last time these two teams played when Yorkton hammered the Generals 60-0. "This game was a lot closer than last time and the elements definitely played a big factor in it," said Yorkton coach Grant Edgar. "It was really wet, the ball was slipping around, it was cold, so yeah it was tough. It was a different Moosomin team compared to the one we played a couple of weeks ago as well."
Combined with the fact that it was a different Moosomin team was the fact that Yorkton was missing many of their players due to prior engagements.
One player they weren't without the services of, however, was Matthew Balysky. Matthew, the younger brother of YRHS Raiders star David Balysky, sparked the Yorkton offence in the first half when he turned what appeared to be a sure loss of yards into a long touchdown run, corralling the fumble and bolting past the Generals defence for the opening score.
Balysky added two more points via the conversion just moments later on yet another broken play to give Yorkton an 8-0 lead that Moosomin just couldn't overcome. "Matthew is a very good athlete," stated coach Edgar following the game. "He's got a good offensive line there that helps him out, but he can make plays out of things that don't happen right.
"If things don't go according to plan his athleticism takes over."
Balysky's athleticism certainly took over for an undermanned Yorkton team on Saturday, leading them to their third straight win in the exhibition season and second straight over Moosomin (Yorkton had also beaten Melville previously).
Next up for the Yorkton Minor Football grade seven and eight squad is the Saskatoon Six-Man Shootout tournament this weekend in Saskatoon.
