The Friday night light shined brightly on the Bonnyville Voyageurs as they fought their way to a win during their first home game of the season.
The Voyageurs beat the Cold Lake Royals 41-7 at Walsh Field on Friday, Sept. 7.
“The game went well,” recalled head coach Larry Godziuk. “We won on the scoreboard but we had a couple of key injuries. Our starting quarterback got hurt early in the game, and we didn’t get him back.”
Starting quarterback, Silas Fagnan, was taken to the hospital, where they found he had broken his arm.
“A big part of our team is Silas,” noted running back Drake Boulianne. “It sucks that he won’t be here for the next few games, and I hope that he has a great recovery and a quick one.”
Parker Reed took over the reins after Fagnan was injured and didn’t disappoint.
“Our backup quarterback was pushed into a starting spot, a Grade 10, that’s a tough spot to be. I think he did extremely well,” Godziuk expressed.
Boulianne made four touchdowns during the game, and thought the game started a little rocky for the Voyageurs.
He said, “I felt our whole team did pretty good... a little bit rusty at the start, but we came out and it was pretty good how we were looking near the end.”
The team fought hard after losing Fagnan, and refused to let the injury affect their game.
“Some of the boys stepped up in his absence, and played really well. I’m pretty proud of what they accomplished,” he said.
One of those players was running back, Evan Fritzler, who got one touchdown in the game.
“I did pretty good today. I made some tackles, ran the ball well, and played physical,” he detailed, adding that it felt good to win on home soil.
The Voyageurs turn their attention now to their exhibition game against the Lacombe Rams on Friday, Sept. 14. Practices will be focused on improving weaknesses on the field.
“We’re going to work on basics. We’re going to continue to develop our playbook, and get more diverse offensively which will allow us have more options to score to be successful. Defensively we still had some breakdowns in some key basics in all of our players to (work on to) make sure we can do better defensively,” Godziuk explained.
Along with their upcoming match, Fagnan’s injury has the Voyageurs focusing on playing each game to the best of their abilities.
“(We) have to try as hard as we can each game because you never know which one you’re going to get hurt in. You’ve got to play each game like it’s your last,” Boulianne noted.
Kickoff for the exhibition game is at 5 p.m. at Walsh Field.
