Ex- Crusader Aimoe beats former team in emotional 29-23 NB win

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“To even come out with the win, it was just amazing.”

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He had quite game against his former club. Aimoe scored on a 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, an interception and returned a punt to the Crusaders’ two-yard line, to set up the winning Vikings’ score—a fullback dive by Dylan Schaefer with 59 seconds left.

“We loved him when he was here and we still love him now,” said Strachan. “We wish he was wearing red instead of blue.

“I still see him lots, he’s just a nice kid. I enjoy running into him. He’s a great competitor, he’s a character guy.

Aimoe and his family relocated to North Battleford from Prince Albert shortly after the football season in 2013. Now that he’s in his graduating year, Aimoe may have played his last game against the Crusaders.

“At first I wasn’t looking forward to (the move) much. I grew up with all these guys all my life,” said Aimoe. “But since I got to (North Battleford), it’s been a lot better than I thought it would be.

“I’m good friends with a lot of (the Crusaders) they’re like family, here.”

After Schaeffer gave the Vikings a 29-23 lead by punching in from the two-yard line, the Crusaders had a chance to win the game. They were deep in Vikings’ territory and took a shot into the endzone from just outside the 10-yard line but mismanaged the clock thinking they had a timeout remaining when they did not.

They ran the ball on first down and by the time the Crusaders started to return to the line of scrimmage, their 15 remaining seconds started to tick off the clock. When Paul’s pass was just out of the reach of wideout Ian McAlpine, time expired and the Crusaders were saddled with the loss.

“We were second and long, we needed to get vertical. Kind of made a mistake, we thought we had a timeout in the bank and that cost us in the end. That’s on me,” said Strachan. “We just needed to get to the endzone.”

Crusaders tailback turned quarterback Shelton Paul had a 28-yard touchdown pass to wideout Ian McAlpine to start off the game. He also ran into the endzone himself on a four-yard scamper. Bryson Simpson had a bruising game on the ground, scored on an eight-yard run to tie the game late at 23-23.

Schaeffer had a pair of touchdowns for the Vikings.

The Crusaders will look for their first win on the season when they play next on Sept. 25 against the Walter Murray Marauders in Saskatoon. Before then, St. Mary’s will host Walter Murray at Max Clunie Field on Friday in an all-Marauder matchup.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea