MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM – The Central Cyclones won the South Rural Football League championship.

The Cyclones put together one of their most complete performances of the season to earn a 32-7 victory over the Balgonie Greenall Griffins at Leibel Field in Regina on Saturday afternoon.

The win gives Central its first SRFL title since 2007 and sees the home team advance to face Saskatoon 5A champion Saskatoon Bishop Mahoney next Saturday in Saskatoon.

“It was a massive team win, everyone playing for everyone,” Central head coach Colin Belsher said. “I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have better teams in the past, but this team has a different feel. They play for each other and know that everyone has to contribute to succeed and they have bought into this lunchpail type attitude where everyone has to work to succeed… When that happens, the results you’re looking for happen. For.”

Central scored all of its points through the air as 9th-year quarterback Traeten Potvin had another brilliant game behind center. Standout receiver Keaton Belsher was his target for the first two majors of the first half, with Sidney Nancarrow and Donovan Harkness adding receiving touchdowns in the second half. Ciaran McCulloch scored a basket late in the first half as Central took a 17-7 lead into the break.

Considering this was only Potvin’s second start at center since taking over for senior Wyatt Craik, the results were exceptional.

“The kids really rally around him,” Belsher said. “We don’t look at him as a 9th grader, we really treat him as another player on the team, and it’s a pretty key position at quarterback. One of Traeten’s best traits is that he sees what has been practiced and what we have prepared for and he goes out and does it.

“From the start of the season until now, it was just a matter of getting used to the pace of high school football versus minor league football, and gaining arm strength as the season went on .

It was a tough decision to make since our starting quarterback was in 12th grade, but I think it worked out well.

Even though the passing game helped put up points, those chances probably wouldn’t have come without running back Kayden Nightingale rushing for over 100 yards and putting the ball in a position where Potvin could hit.

“Kayden was an absolute man,” praised Belsher. “A lot of really tough yards, he had some really big first downs that helped us control the clock and field position.”

And then there was the defense.

The Cyclones were without two of their most notable linebackers in the regular-season loss to Balgonie – Tanner Duncan was away participating in a rodeo and Ben Barth had broken his wrist during the previous week – but both were in the lineup. SATURDAY. Barth even “bludgeoned” himself and chose to play the game with a cast on his broken wrist.

It all led to as complete a defensive performance as Central could have hoped for, especially against the lethal Griffins offense.

“Having those two guys back in the mix made a huge difference, because our defense was unbelievable,” Belsher said. “They played lights out and it was just one of those games where you knew the defense was always going to make a big stop. Our defensive line played wonderfully, our DBs were excellent and it was definitely a team effort.

The focus now turns to Saskatoon’s Bishop Mahoney as the teams face off in the SHSAA provincial semifinals Saturday afternoon in Saskatoon. If victorious, Central will host the provincial final against Prince Albert Carlton or Regina Johnson on Saturday, November 12 at Gutheridge Field.

“That would be huge,” Belsher said. “We’ll trade film with Bishop Mahoney, go over some things and look for weaknesses and they’ll do the same, and hopefully we can come away with the win next weekend.”

Bishop Mahoney advanced to the semifinal with a 42-6 victory in the Saskatoon 5A municipal final, while Carlton beat Martensville 40-22 in the North Saskatchewan League title game and Johnson posted a 44-3 victory over Thom in the Regina 5A city final.