Photo credit: Darren Steinke
The Saskatoon Hilltops hope to celebrate another No. 23 in ’23.
Saskatoon captured its 23rd championship since the formation of the Prairie Football Conference in 1977 by defeating the Regina Thunder 21-13 at SMF Field on Sunday.
The ultimate objective is to win a 23rd Canadian Junior Football League title, dating back to 1953.
The Hilltops moved one important step closer to attaining that goal by outlasting the Thunder, which led 13-9 before Saskatoon scored all 12 fourth-quarter points.
“Regina played a really good game,” said the Hilltops’ Boston Davidsen, who rushed for 161 yards and two touchdowns in the PFC final.
“They played us really well. They’re an elite team. They could have won that game.
“I think it was just our coaches doing a good job of making sure we maintained poise. They had a good game plan for us and then, when we were put in those (tough) spots, all that hard work we put in during the off-season starts to matter at those moments and we were able to pull through.”
Last off-season, the returning members of the Hilltops were fuelled by a 39-21 loss to the Thunder in the 2022 league final, played at Mosaic Stadium.
“That’s part of the reason that you love the sport,” Davidsen said. “There’s the highs and there’s the lows. After you’ve experienced the lows, that makes the highs that much sweeter.
“I know a lot of the guys were not happy with how the season ended last year, so we made it a priority to make sure we were getting better every day, from November of last year all the way until August of this year.”
Since Aug. 13, when the PFC’s regular season began, the Hilltops have gone undefeated in 10 games while outscoring the opposition 409-66.
The secret?
“I think it’s the culture that has been set up by the coaches,” Davidsen said. “When you come in, they expect that you’re going to put your best foot forward and work your hardest.
“The Hilltops always have this tradition of winning, but it’s not that the winning is what’s expected. If you work your hardest, the winning tends to follow.”
The priority now is to follow up on the hard-fought victory over Regina by defeating the St. Clair Saints — from Windsor, Ont. — in a Canadian Junior Football League semi-final on Sunday (1 p.m., SMF Field).
“This will be my first time playing a team from Ontario, so it’ll be a new experience,” noted Davidsen, who has rushed for 1,477 yards and 13 TDs in 10 games this season.
“We have to attack it the same way we would attack any other game. That’s by going to practice, focusing, and working as hard as we can. As long as we can look in the mirror and know that we tried our best, we can be happy with the result.”
The winner of Sunday’s game will visit the home field of the British Columbia Football Conference champion in the Canadian Bowl, set for Nov. 11.
The BCFC final is slated for Saturday, when the Westshore Rebels are to play host to the Okanagan Sun in Victoria.
Dating back to 1947, Saskatoon has won 35 championships while participating in four different leagues.
Here is a list of the Hilltops’ championship seasons, with an asterisk denoting the years in which the team also won a national title:
Saskatchewan Junior Rugby Football Union: 1947.
Saskatchewan Junior Football League: 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952.
Manitoba-Saskatchewan Junior Football League: 1953*, 1958*, 1959*, 1960, 1967, 1968*, 1969*.
Prairie Football Conference: 1978*, 1985*, 1988, 1991*, 1996*, 1999, 2000, 2001*, 2002*, 2003*, 2007*, 2008, 2010*, 2011*, 2012*, 2014*, 2015*, 2016*, 2017*, 2018*, 2019*, 2021, 2023.
