Valkyries hit ground running in pre-season win over Storm

WWCFL season will be a sprint in 2017

Denise Kolosky (#44) and her Valkyries teammates hit a Storm tailback.

    The Saskatoon Valkyries are looking like themselves out of the gate, which will be key in what will be a lightning fast 2017 season.

    On Saturday at Saskatoon Minor Football Field, the Valkyries dumped the Edmonton Storm 56-6 in a pre-season tilt. The contest also served as a rematch from last year’s Western Women’s Canadian Football League title game, which the Valkyries won 81-6 in Lethbridge.

    Normally, the Western Women’s Canadian Football League schedule is spread a little over two months. With the International Federation of American Football Women’s World Championship running from June 24 to 30 in Langley, B.C., there is a push to get the WWCFL campaign concluded a touch faster in comparison to past years.

    The Valkyries will go from their pre-season game right into a four-game regular season contests. The playoffs have been shortened as well.

Kelsey Murphy returns a punt for the Valkyries.

    The top two clubs in the four-team Prairie Conference that the Valkyries are part of will advance to a conference championship game to be held on June 3 or 4. In past years, all four teams in the Prairie Conference were automatically placed in playoffs.

    The winner of the conference title game will advance to the league final, which will be held June 10 in Saskatoon against the first place club from the three-team Western Conference. If the Valkyries return to the league final for sixth time in seven years, they will do so playing seven games on seven consecutive weekends including the pre-season, regular season and post-season.

    The 2017 schedule doesn’t contain a single bye week for the Valkyries.

    In noting how Saskatoon’s schedule plays out, it might have been even that more impressive the Valkyries utilized pretty much everyone on their 53-player active roster in Saturday’s romp of the Storm. Defensively, the Valkyries were impressive holding the Storm to 226 yards of offence.

    Most of Edmonton’s yards came from star running back Brenna Bouchard, who carried the ball 18 times for 140 yards and scored her team’s lone major in the first half.

Kendal Matheson (#25) zips downfield for the Valkyries.

    Valkyries veteran star linebacker Beth Thomson proved she can still be one of the WWCFL’s most dominant defensive players making four solo tackles, knocking down a pass and registering a sack off an edge blitz on Storm quarterback Aria McGowan. Linebacker Denise Kolosky made three solo tackles and recovered a fumble, while standout safety Shaylyn de Jong came up with an interception.

    Offensively, the Valkyries were dominant on the ground. They utilized seven different ball carriers who combined for 308 yards. They limited Julene Friesen, who is their all-purpose do everything tailback, to six carries, but she still piled up 99 yards and scored three touchdowns.

    Sophomore running back Kendal Matheson ran the ball seven times for 90 yards and scored two majors. Both her scoring runs were pretty impressive.

    On her first major late in the fourth quarter, Matheson ripped out of a number of tackle attempts by Storm players and sprinted home for a 50-yard touchdown run. Her second score was a three-yard short yardage carry, where she twisted and turned through the Storm defensive line to reach the end zone.

Beth Thomson (#2) sacks the quarterback for the Valkyries.

    Rookie running back Sarah Wright scored her first rushing major for the Valkyries running the ball four times for 49 yards.

    Only the passing game seemed to be a bit clunky for the Valkyries due to the fact they have a number of new receivers looking to build some chemistry with sophomore quarterback Alex Eyolfson and rookie signal caller Cori Thorstad. That part of the game traditionally seems to smooth itself out as the campaign moves long.

    Eyolfson did hit sophomore receiver Alyssa Wiebe for a touchdown toss in the first half. Veteran pass catcher Carly Dyck also showed more explosion and power in her route running than she had in past years. She had an impressive 28-yard catch and run touchdown, where she broke out of a couple of tackles, called back due to an illegal block penalty.

    In the kicking game, Dyck made all seven of her converts, hit field goals from 32 and 28 yards out and had a single from a missed field goal attempt from 39 yards out.

    The biggest hurdle the Valkyries will have to overcome offensively is the absence of star receiver Marci (Kiselyk) Halseth, who will miss the entire season after injuring her Achilles tendon leading up to the pre-season game with the Storm.

Carly Dyck nails a field goal for the Valkyries.

    The coaching staff has been shuffled from last season. Pat Berry moved from defensive coordinator to head coach, while former head coach Jeff Yausie shuffled into the role of defensive coordinator.

    Jordan Walls, who was the quarterbacks coach last season, assumed the role of offensive coordinator from Chad Palmer, who has departed from the team. Walls is also the big favourite to take over the role as starting quarterback for the defending Canadian Junior Football League Saskatoon Hilltops, when their campaign starts in August.

    Chris Hengen-Braun returns as the Valkyries special teams and offensive line coach.

    The Valkyries quest to repeat as WWCFL’s champs begins in earnest this coming Sunday, May 7, when they host the Winnipeg Wolfpack at 1 p.m. at SMF Field. They host their archrivals the Regina Riot on Saturday, May 13 at 7 p.m. at SMF Field. The two teams face each in Regina on May 21.

    Saskatoon closes its regular season schedule on May 28, when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the Manitoba Fearless.

    If the Valkyries progress like they have in past seasons, it would be no surprise to see them playing in the WWCFL title game on home turf on June 10.

    If you have any comments you would like pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com. 

Valkyries dominant dynasty continues

Saskatoon wins fifth WWCFL title in six years, bombs Storm

The Valkyries celebrate their fifth WWCFL title win in six years.

 LETHBRIDGE, Alta. - The Saskatoon Valkyries execution was near perfect, and the Edmonton Storm got executed as a result.

    On Saturday at the University of Lethbridge Community Stadium, the Valkyries (7-1 overall) returned to the top of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League mountain top with an astounding 81-6 victory over the Storm (6-2 overall). With the win, the Valkyries claimed their fifth WWCFL championship in six years after losing to last year’s league champs the Regina Riot in the WWCFL Prairie Conference final. 

    Against the Storm on Saturday, the Valkyries had the wind at their backs for the first quarter and used that advantage to build a 30-0 edge. Saskatoon cruised to victory from that point.

    “It feels awesome,” said Valkyries running back Julene Friesen. “It was a great game. It is nice to win by a lot and to feel like we had a great end to our season.

Julene Friesen runs in a touchdown for the Valkyries.

    “Everybody played. Everybody did so well. It just shows once again how well rounded our team is and how strong we are through our whole depth chart.”

    Friesen, who had an outstanding season for the Valkyries, book ended the scoring recording the game’s first touchdown on a 28 yard romp and the contest’s final major coming off an 82-yard kickoff return with 2:43 to play in the fourth quarter. She also had a 30-yard touchdown run in the opening quarter to account for three major scores overall.

    In total, Friesen picked up 142 yards rushing on seven carries and 109 yards on three kickoff returns in being named the Valkyries player of the game. She admitted the kick return touchdown was her sweetest jaunt into the end zone.

    “We’ve been talking about it all season,” said Friesen. “Finally to get it on the last return of the year was fun, even though I fumbled around with it a little bit.”

Valkyries LB Beth Thomson (#2) sacks Storm QB Aria McGowan (#80).

    The first quarter surge also saw Valkyries quarterback Alex Eyolfson fire a 10-yard touchdown strike to veteran receiver Stacey Boldt and complete a 56-yard pass and run score to rookie receiver Alyssa Wiebe. Wiebe, who is a former hockey standout with the University of North Dakota, topped all Valkyries with receivers with four catches for 111 yards.

    A strong effort by Saskatoon’s defence the kept Edmonton pinned in its own zone resulting in the Storm conceding a safety in the opening frame. Valkyries linebacker Beth Thomson, who has played for the club in all six years of its existence, had a big first quarter sack and returned an interception 33 yards in the second quarter to set up a 32-yard field goal by kicker Carly Dyck.

    “I had the most fun out there today,” said Thomson. “That pic was awesome. I almost got it into the end zone, but maybe next year.”

    Thomson also said the game couldn’t have gone any better for her squad, and she was elated about the latest title win.

    “Every time you win the championship, you get that feeling of happiness,” said Thomson. “It is there again right now.

Alyssa Wiebe (#13) had 111 yards receiving for the Valkyries.

    “Once we got rolling, it just started happening for us. We just started rolling. It was the Valkyries doing it again.”

    Some of the game’s loudest cheers were reserved for Dyck, who is a Lethbridge product. She played three seasons with her hometown Steel, when the Steel lost three straight WWCFL title games to the Valkyries from 2012 to 2014. She lived in Saskatoon for the last two of those campaigns and decided to remain in that centre year round and play for the Valkyries.

    In the second quarter, Dyck hauled in her only catch on a streak pattern from quarterback Reed Thorstad, which went the distance for a 45-yard major score to delight her hometown supporters. Dyck was pumped that Valkyries offensive coordinator Chad Palmer was looking to dial up her number.

    “Palmer was being real nice to me,” said Dyck. “He was like, ‘I want to get you a touchdown at home, so we are going to send you a long ball.’

    “I was so happy. It was a nice reach out for me, a long run. There was nobody even close to me I felt anyway. I didn’t notice anybody.”

    She was pumped to finally be on the winning side of a WWCFL championship game.

    “It took five years for me to get this win, but it was better late than never,” said Dyck. “It was pretty exciting.”

Carly Dyck hauls in a 45-yard TD reception for the Valkyries.

    Running backs Samantha and Kendal Matheson, who are sisters, added major scores for the Valkyries in the second quarter. Samantha ripped off a 62-yard scoring run, while Kendal, who is in her rookie season, ran one in from 65 yards out.

    Saskatoon led 54-0 at halftime.

    The scoring slowed up a little in the third quarter. Saskatoon went ahead 59-0, when the Storm conceded another safety and Dyck nailed a 27-yard field goal attempt.

    The Valkyries lead expanded to 74-0 in the fourth quarter thanks to a three-yard touchdown run by Samantha Matheson, a 31-yard missed field goal single by Dyck and 39-yard interception return score by defensive back Rienna Rueve.

    Storm running back Brenna Bouchard snapped the shutout bid returning a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown after Rueve’s major to trim Saskatoon’s edge to 74-6. Friesen recorded her kickoff return touchdown after Bouchard found pay dirt.

The Valkyries celebrate Rienna Rueve's interception return TD.

    In total, the Valkyries piled up 624 yards of offence, which included 329 yards on the ground and 297 yards through the air. Edmonton was held to 148 yards offensively.

    Valkyries special teams coordinator Chris Hengen-Braun said Saturday’s win was a great capper to a special season.

    “It feels pretty good,” said Hengen-Braun. “This is really a different team than we have had in the past.

    “They did an amazing job coming together. We have a lot of really young girls. Over half of our team has never won one of these before, so it is really special for them.

    “It was really cool to see a huge effort from many, many different players on offence and on defence. We had a bunch of players step up. It was just really cool to see a lot of these young players come out and be very effective on the field.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com. Check Twitter for more game photos of the Valkyries WWCFL championship win @stankssports.

Valkyries look good, can be even better

Julene Friesen (#14) tears down field for the Valkyries.

    The Saskatoon Valkyries look good, but they have the potential to be better.

    That might be a scary observation to make considering the local Western Women’s Canadian Football League team thumped the Winnipeg based Manitoba Fearless 61-1 on Sunday at Saskatoon Minor Football Field. With the win, the Valkyries improved to 2-0 in regular season play and 3-0 overall.

    With 27 first-year players on their roster, the Valkyries are expected to go through some growing pains. During their three solid wins, the growing pains are evident, but it has to be noted that improvement is also visible.

    Saskatoon needs that improvement to continue with two big head-to-head clashes looming with their biggest rivals in the defending league champion Regina Riot. The Riot also sport a 2-0 regular season record and a 3-0 overall mark. They have been dominant in their three outings, which included dumping the Winnipeg Wolfpack 47-0 on Sunday in Regina.

    With their respective 2-0 regular season starts, the Valkyries and Riot will host Prairie Conference semifinal playoff games on June 12. Their regular season ending home-and-home series will determine which side will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs in the Prairie Conference. The Valkyries host the Riot this coming Sunday at 7 p.m. at SMF Field, and the Riot host the Valkyries on May 28 at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium.

Valkyries DL Jaime Lammerding forces a fumble.

    In the win over the Fearless, the Valkyries were impressive offensively, when it came to running the ball. Saskatoon piled up 330 yards on the ground using five different running backs. Each player had strong games running behind an always powerful Valkyries offensive line.

    Veteran Julene Friesen ran the ball for 89 yards on 10 carries, and she scored the game’s opening touchdown on a nine yard scamper. Fellow veteran Samantha Matheson ran for 79 yards on five carries and ran in her squad’s second major slashing through the middle of the Fearless defence on a 31-yard run.

    Rookie Kendal Matheson showed she can run like her older sister, Samantha, and piled up 68 yards on five carries. The younger Matheson ran in a major from 37 yards out in the fourth quarter.

    Fellow first-year runners Tyra Tkachuk and Ricki Obed both had their strong moments as well. Tkachuk had 52 yards on six carries, while Obed had 26 yards on three carries.

Stacey Boldt hauls in a TD grab for the Valkyries.

    Saskatoon’s passing game did look a bit disjointed due to the fact some players in that area have moved around. In hopes of getting more production out of the passing game over the long term, the Valkyries moved last year’s starting quarterback Stacey Boldt back to receiver.

    At quarterback, the Valkyries are using a tandem of two youngsters in rookie Alex Eyolfson and sophomore Reed Thorstad in fashion similar to the way the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders utilized John Hufnagel and Joe Barnes way back in 1981.

    Eyolfson played the first and fourth quarters completing four of five passes for 85 yards. She scrambled for a four-yard rushing major late in the first quarter.

    In the fourth quarter, Eyolfson hit rookie receiver and former University of North Dakota hockey standout Alyssa Wiebe for a 45-yard touchdown pass reception off an intermediate out route. Eyolfson later found Boldt on a shot eight-yard middle pass for a second throwing major.

    Thorstad called signals in the second and third quarters and completed one of seven passes. She was also intercepted by Fearless defensive back Marissa Milani deep on the Manitoba side of the field.

    The Valkyries passing game will smooth out with more repetitions in practice and games as the season moves on. Saskatoon’s passing game will receive another big boost, when veteran receiver Marci Kiselyk returns from injury.

    On defence, the Valkryies limited the Fearless to 68 net yards. In the second quarter, defensive back Shaylyn DeJong returned an interception 47 yards for a major score, while teammate Kelsey Dick had a pick-six of her own from 45 yards out late in that same frame.

Kendal Matheson (#25) runs in a touchdown for the Valyries.

    DeJong and sophomore linebacker Kathleen Kent topped the Valkyries with three tackles each.

    Carly Dyck kicked a 25-yard field goal and the Fearless conceded a safety to round out Saskatoon’s scoring. Fearless kicker Sara Milani accounted for her side’s only point on a 16-yard missed field goal.

    Going forward, the Valkryies will really see where they are at, when they face the Riot. Regina returns star quarterback Aimee Kowalski and star running back Carmen Agar along with sure-handed receivers Amanda Hungle, Claire Dore and Alex Kowalski. The Riot’s defence will be tough.

    Both teams have pushed each other to be better over the history of the WWCFL dating back to 2011. These two upcoming clashes should prove to be no different.

Samantha Matheson in the Express

Valkyries RB Samantha Matheson powers her way through Fearless tacklers.

    I recently caught up with Valkyries running back Samantha Matheson for a feature in the Saskatoon Express.

    In last year’s Prairie Conference final at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Matheson had a game for the ages running for 159 yards on 14 carries and scoring four touchdowns. She helped the Valkyries rally from a 28-7 deficit to the host Riot to take a late 29-28 fourth quarter lead. The Riot took the clash 31-29 on a last second field goal.

    Matheson was going to walk away from football after playing through the 2015 campaign with nagging injuries to her knees. Over the off-season, her knees healed up to the point she decided to return for her third season. Her story can be found right here.

Roller derby in the Express

Action at a recent Saskatoon Roller Derby League practice.

    I had a busy week with the Saskatoon Express.

    Besides the story on Matheson, I also wrote a feature on the Saskatoon Roller Derby League. Since forming in 2007, Roller Derby is moving from a social function into a more serious sport.

    The Saskatoon league hosted its first-ever tournament on Saturday and Sunday at the Legends Centre in Warman billed as the “Attack of the 8-Wheeled Woman.”

    Veteran skaters Mel "Forna Skate" Langeler and Laurel "Bella Von Bastard" Turner talk about their experiences with the local league and the sport. 

    The feature on the league can be found here.

Rush fever to hit new heights

A Rush display at the Saskatoon airport.

    If you thought people in Saskatoon and area were crazy over the Saskatchewan Rush before, you likely ain’t seen nothing yet.

    On Saturday in Calgary, the Rush claimed Game 1 of the National Lacrosse League’s West Division final 16-10 against the host Roughnecks. Game 2 is slated for this coming Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. In necessary, a series deciding 10-minute mini game will be held right after Game 2.

    The Rush played in front of crowds of over 10,000 people in each of their last six home dates. They drew 15,027 spectators to their last home contest back on April 16, which was an 11-8 victory over the Colorado Mammoth. One has to wonder if the Rush will be able to sneak in a few extra bodies into the SaskTel Centre past the fire marshal this coming Saturday in order to eclipse the attendance mark from the Mammoth game.

    The atmosphere at all nine regular season home games for the Rush has been raucous to say the least. Their merchandise is being worn by fans all over “the Bridge City.”

    “Rush Fever” will likely reach new heights this Saturday. There might even be tailgating in the parking lot with the warm weather. Getting to the SaskTel Centre early definitely seems like a must.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.