With SDSSAA Junior Football action looming near, the schedule maker could not have created much better matchups than what fans at the James Jerome Sports Complex were treated to last Thursday.
After struggling with injuries and numbers that forced the forfeiture of their week three battle with the Lo-Ellen Park Knights, the revived Lockerby Vikings program were back on the field to face the Lasalle Lancers in a showdown of the two winless teams.
The contest remained in doubt until the very end as the Vikes not only broke the goose-egg, offensively speaking, but went toe to toe with Lasalle, dropping a 19-14 decision that featured some very solid football from both sides.
Running back Jake Crawford opened the scoring for Lasalle but Lockerby got that one back courtesy of a 17 yard touchdown pass as QB Will Stitt hooked up with wideout Liam Koski for the first score of the season for the Vikes.
A two point conversion would by Liam Speck gave Lockerby the lead before Lasalle pivot Lunden Campbell-Runia began to assert himself.
The 15 year-old grade 10 student who passed on football last fall to compete with the Lancers' boys volleyball team made good on a pair of touchdown runs, with Deran Cooper adding a convert for a 19th point for Lasalle.
But Lockerby went back to the air, this time with Stitt finding Felix Mageau on the receiving end of a 35 yard major.
Campbell-Runia would give his team a little breathing room, picking up a key first down on the ground as the young man with the quarterback build starts to piece the position together with every passing start.
"I was struggling with hang time, so I was throwing more picks (interceptions) that I would like - but now I got the ball lower," he said. "And when I run, I was warned for face masking - an open hand to the mask - so now I stiff-arm the shoulders and lower pads."
As for the football IQ that was part and parcel of stretching for a first down in the dying minutes, Campbell-Runia attributes some of that to his one and only year of Joe MacDonald Youth Football League play when he was 11 years old or so.
"I am pretty good with that, getting to where I need to be," he said. "I was aware of where I had to go and when, so I got there pretty good, pretty quick."
A 25-7 St Charles College Cardinals victory over the Lively Hawks in game two now has both crews sitting at 2-2, with one game each remaining.
Emmanuel Hagan, Harrison Markiewich, Fahad Abdulrahman and Nolan Larche all recorded majors for the Cards, with Josh Rioux adding a convert. The Hawks scoring was provided by the tandem of Mason Hampel (TD) and Rowan Eberhart (PAT).
Finally, the showdown of the two unbeaten teams produced the drama everyone hoped for as the St Benedict Bears built up a 6-0 half-time lead on a pair of Domingo Quintana field goals, only to see the Lo-Ellen Park Knights surge in the third, pulling ahead thanks to a 44 yard run from Levin Blouin and the ensuing PAT from Monjed Eddin.
The Knights gave themselves a little breathing room when Blouin scampered home from the 24 yard line early in quarter four but it wasn't until the Purple and Black added a pair of touchdowns in the final 17 seconds (Blouin - 72 yard run; Byron Marshall - 70 yard interception return) that a 28-6 victory was secured.
