Four straight for Titans
The O’Neill Titans were on a mission heading into the 2013 Regina Intercollegiate Football League season. It’s almost accomplished. The Titans captured their fourth straight 3A city title on Monday, beating the Miller Marauders 33-14 on a chilly evening at Mosaic Stadium.
With the win, O’Neill advances to a provincial semifinal on Saturday in Saskatoon against the host Bishop Mahoney Saints. The winner of that game moves on to the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association final on Nov. 9 in Moose Jaw.
Saturday’s semi is a rematch of last year’s provincial final, in which the Saints beat O’Neill 44-14. The Titans responded in 2013 by posting the best record in Regina’s 3A division (5-1), with the only loss coming in a 4A crossover game — 10-7 versus the Campbell Tartans.
Despite that setback, the Titans dominated 3A competition en route to the league’s regular-season title, also winning the coveted Battle of Argyle against the rival Thom Trojans. O’Neill completed its run through RIFL on Monday with another city championship, earning a chance at redemption against Bishop Mahoney.
“We’ve been preparing our whole year for this game,” offered Titans linebacker Kieran Forsberg. “We have three of the four trophies we want. We’ve been working hard and we’re going after one more trophy.”
This will be the third straight year that O’Neill and Bishop Mahoney have met in the provincial playoffs. The Saints also prevailed 22-14 in 2011.
O’Neill won the provincials in 2010, defeating Moose Jaw Peacock.
“We worked hard all year from February already when we were doing our off-season training,” said running back Derek Eckert, who rushed for more than 100 yards in last year’s RIFL final.
“We were working to come back and win another (city title) for the fourth year in a row. We did that. Now we’re ready for the provincial semi.”
The Titans earned that opportunity with a dominant ground game on Monday, led by Eckert’s 18 rushes for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Yol Piok also cracked the 100-yard barrier with 105 on just 11 carries. The other majors came from Griffin Magee (23-yard pass from Cordell Kadash) and Ed Ratcliffe (one-yard run).
When the dust cleared, the Titans had rushed 41 times while tossing just four passes.
“I had to do whatever I could to get yards,” noted Eckert, who also booted four converts and a 17-yard field goal. “The ground game has been very successful this year due to our linemen blocking great and our receivers blocking great. I have to give a lot of credit to them.”
The defence, meanwhile, held Miller in check until late in the fourth quarter. That’s when quarterback Brock Sich hooked up with receiver Eliya Hamad for touchdown bombs of 40 and 68 yards.
Hamad finished with four catches for 110 yards while Sich passed for 169, completing 12 of 21 passes for two scores and two interceptions. He also had a team-high 85 yards on 13 carries for the Marauders, who went 3-3 in the regular season.
“Miller was a very tough opponent,” added Forsberg, who led his team with 8½ tackles. “It’s a whole new season when it comes to playoffs. They came ready, we came ready and it was a battle out there. Hats off to Miller. They played great but I’m proud of our team.”