No matter how you look at it, the fact remains the same -- the Yorkton Raiders have been the team to beat in the South 5A 12-Man Football League for many years now, and any time they lose a game, it raises many an eyebrow.
Saturday afternoon was one of those occasions, and all of a sudden first place in the seven-team league is very much up in the air.
The Central Cyclones used a stellar game on the ground from running back Javin Boynton and consistently came up with big defensive plays to take a 24-13 victory over the Raiders at Gutheridge Field.
Central improved to 4-1 on the season and moved into a tie for second with the Weyburn Eagles, also 4-1, after they took a 23-6 victory over the Peacock Tornadoes earlier in the day. Yorkton has a bye in the final week of the regular season and as a result will finish at 5-1.
That makes the final weekend of games exceptionally interesting -- all thanks to the first win for Central over Yorkton in close to a decade.
“The focus this week was just about character,” said Cyclones head coach Colin Belsher. “We really wanted to know what we were as a team. We struggled against Weyburn and we know they’re good, then Yorkton’s always been at the top, they always have teams gunning for them because they’ve always been a strong team. So we gave them all the respect in the world and really worked out butts off this week. I really worked the kids hard and I just wanted to know if we could fight back, could we play with the big teams and I’m pretty proud of these kids, they did a great job.”
Boynton enjoyed his best game of the season in leading the Cyclones to victory. He racked up 10 carries for 100 yards in the first half and was even better after the break, putting down 10 carries for 123 yards and two touchdowns, including a game-breaking 53-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
All told, Boynton finished the game with 20 carries for 223 yards against one of the defacto best defences in the league.
“It went great, it’s been seven years since we beat them so it’s a really good compliment,” Boynton said among the raucous post-game celebrations. “The offensive line gave me the room to run, [Yorkton] had sealed the outside pretty well so we decided to go inside and it worked out really good.”
Central worked on the left side of the Yorkton defence all day and benefitted from a change for the better on the offensive line that created all sorts of openings.
“[Javin] is a horse, and our o-line blocked well for him,” Belsher said. “We had a senior, Jake Wilson come over a play on that side of the ball due to injury and he made some crazy good blocks that would spring Javin.
“I thought our pass game was good, too, and that kind of balanced it out,” Belsher added. “[Quarterback] Brodie [Ansell] made a couple of mistakes and he’s still learning, he knows that, but when you can lean on Javin to set up the pass and vice versa, it’s pretty exciting as a coach and makes a little bit easier sometimes.”
Ansell finished the game 4-for-10 passing for 82 yards with two interceptions, but also had three carries for 14 yards, including a short touchdown run in the first half that ended up sending the two teams into the half tied 10-10. Rylan Schaffer added a field goal for Central to open scoring.
Owen Effa had Yorkton’s first-half major; Landon Balbuk also had a field goal for their first points.
Boynton’s first touchdown of the game early in the second half gave Central a 16-10 lead, and after another Balbuk field goal got Yorkton back within three, Boynton would put things away with his second major.
The Raiders didn’t go quietly, though. Their passing game went to work -- quarterback Chase Batke ended up with 13-for-29 day that included 142 yards through the air -- and they appeared to have pulled back within three with three minutes to play, but the apparent touchdown was called back due to offensive pass interference.
The Cyclones defence stiffened from there, and Yorkton wouldn’t threaten again.
Central closes out their regular season in Estevan against the winless Elecs next Saturday, and needless to say, they’re excited for the chance to potentially atop the standings..
“The confidence is really high, so we’ll see if we can get first and then it’s into the playoffs,” Boynton said.
