Saskatoon Hilltops best Regina Thunder in rivalry matchup

Regina Thunder and Saskatoon Hilltops went head-to-head Saturday night, but only one team could remain undefeated.

The Thunder fell short against the Hilltops, 29-15 at Mosaic Stadium. It’s the team’s first loss of the season.

The Hilltops sit in first place in the Prairie Conference of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) at 4-0.

Wide receiver Drake Douglas was a major playmaker for the team.

“I’m feeling pretty great,” he said. “I haven’t been in Mosaic in a while. I haven’t scored a touchdown in Mosaic since high school. It’s pretty special.”

Douglas scored a touchdown in the third quarter and had a total of 185 yards receiving.

He said sitting 4-0 feels good right now, but the team still has work to do.

“We’ll celebrate this weekend, but then we’ll be onto the next week,” he said.

“We’ve got a long season. We’re feeling pretty good but we know there’s going to be some changes next week and we’re going to keep getting better each week.”

Hilltops quarterback Treyton Reider also had a strong night, securing one touchdown in the first quarter to go with his 299 passing yards.

He said the win feels good but this isn’t the end goal.

“Being 4-0 feels great but at the end of the day you got to keep working hard,” Reider said. “Because this isn’t the end goal, it’s to win the championship. 4-0 is good but the job’s not finished.”

The Saskatoon-Regina rivalry is often referred to as the real “test” for both teams.

“You can’t really base your success off of different teams, you’ve got to base it on them (the Thunder),” Reider said. “Today we battled and it showed that we as a team like to work hard and we’re going to get through it.”

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The win is extra special to the Hilltops who honoured Jeff Gould — former Hilltops director, manager, president, game day convenor and the Prairie Football Conference’s second vice president — ahead of the match.

He died in August.

Defensive coordinator Jeff Yausie said Gould was well respected in the football community.

“He was a great man and he was involved with the league so I know he was well respected in Regina,” Yausie said.

“I noticed that kids had stickers on their helmets to honour Jeff Gould. It was nice to come out and play well.”

For Gouldie pic.twitter.com/J5XAFcaVNp

— Saskatoon Hilltops (@SaskHilltops) September 7, 2024

Regina Thunder ready for rematch

Although it’s not the ending the Thunder was hoping for, the loss is a learning opportunity.

Head coach Scott Macaulay said some of the players were “too tight” and “awestruck” ahead of the match.

“We had a couple of system breakdowns on defense that allowed them to have some big gains,” he said. “But it’s going to be a good opportunity to learn from it.”

Macaulay said a lot of things went well on the field and there’s optimism for the rematch.

“We got three weeks to prepare for these guys again, and we just make sure we get better each week,” Macaulay said.

“We need to reload, learn from our mistakes and get into the film. I’m proud of their efforts, they played the full 60 minutes and we’ll use it as a stepping stone to get better.”

Thunder’s WR Austin Wood — who had 102 receiving yards in the game — is also proud of his team, despite the loss.

“I’m still confident in my team,” he said. “We’re going to be back and play these guys again and we’ll see them in playoffs. I’m fully confident in this team and I wouldn’t rather be with anybody else.”

He thinks the team started out too slow and just couldn’t catch up to the Hilltops momentum.

“I think we just shot ourselves in the foot that first quarter and we didn’t have the momentum to start and it was hard to come back from that,” he said.

He’s looking forward to the next time the teams go head to head.

“We need to match their physicality, and keep improving on our game,” Wood said.

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