Hilltops look to continue early season dominance in Calgary
Still undefeated.
Still untested.
The Saskatoon Hilltops want to keep it that way.
“If we don’t play a close game all year, we’ve done our job,” says longtime Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant, whose team (3-0) heads to Calgary to play the Colts (0-3) on Saturday at McMahon Stadium.
“We’re not coming down to anyone. They’ve got to come up and find us. That’s the program we’ve created and instilled. Obviously we’ve been fortunate to get some pretty good results out of the process, too.”
Here are five things to know as the Hilltops resume play in the Canadian Junior Football League’s Prairie Football Conference:
1 Coming off a bye
The Hilltops, who had the PFC bye last week, are a well rested bunch but also a team that’s anxious to get back playing.
“Hey, if you saw practice (Thursday) night, it was a pretty physical, aggressive night,” Sargeant noted. “You can tell we’ve been away for a while. There was a lot of smacking, that’s for sure.
“For the most part, we’re rested and we’re excited to get playing again.”
2 Total domination
The Toppers have outscored the opposition 138-16.
“That’s not bad,” Sargeant said. “We design every game plan to dominate. If you don’t do that, it creates a lot of issues.
“Every game we put together, it’s about domination. That’s what it is.”
Saskatoon hasn’t lost a CJFL game in more than a year. The Hilltops’ last loss came Sept. 9, 2017, to the rival Regina Thunder.
3 Carrying on with the Colts
Calgary played Saskatoon in the 2016 final, losing 43-21 to the Hilltops in that game. Earlier in 2016, the Colts beat the Toppers 36-21.
Last season, however, it wasn’t even close. Saskatoon hammered Calgary 41-9.
“They’re a team in transition, it looks like,” Sargeant said. “They’ve got a lot of young players, new coaching staff. They’re trying to create their culture and develop their program. Ultimately for us, we’re just coming out and worrying about us.”
Calgary has been outscored 173-1.
4 Not quite perfect
Sargeant is far from satisfied. “Since the last time we played, I need to see some improvement in a couple of areas,” he said. “First thing is line of scrimmage. We are not pleased with their performance from the last game. We put a lot of emphasis and work on that so I’m looking for big improvement
“No. 2 is special team play. We haven’t been real solid or consistent in what I’d like to see. And No. 3 is our tackling. I want to see a defence that does a good job of tackling and not giving up those YAC yards after a catch and run.”
5 Home again on Sept. 22
The Hilltops host the Regina Thunder Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at SMF Field in the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.