A Carlton defender goes in for the tackle on the St. Mary ball carrier during the #1 vs #4 NSFL semi-final playoff match last season at Max Clunie Field on Oct. 19, 2024. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW)

By Logan Lehmann

High School Football

St. Mary, Carlton set to clash in 13th annual Car Guys Classic

Oct 2, 2025 | 2:22 PM

The most important game of the North Sask. Football League (NSFL) regular season goes down on Friday.

The storied rivalry between Prince Albert’s two biggest high schools will write another chapter tomorrow when Carlton and St. Mary meet for the 13th annual Car Guys Classic at Max Clunie Field.

Previously dubbed the Canadian Tire Classic, Carlton has won the last three installments of the game while outscoring St. Mary 150-28 over those matchups.

Despite how the recent matchups have gone, St. Mary has historically been the better team, as they’ve won seven of the 13 annual contests, including six straight from 2012-2017 and another, more recently, in 2021. Carlton has won four overall matchups with their other win coming in 2018, in addition to their victories in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

There have been two instances where a winner was not decided in the annual matchup. The first was in 2019 when Carlton and St. Mary tied 27-27, and the second was a year later in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic sidelined not just football, but all sports for the year.

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Following their win last week over Lloydminster, St. Mary head coach Curt Hundeby told paNOW that his team needs to be sharp entering Friday.

“They have a very good offence, some amazing weapons. They’ve got a very tough defence that loves to fly around, they don’t miss many tackles. They got a very good coaching staff, their special teams are good – there’s no aspect to their game that’s not sharp. And so we need to have the best week of practice we’ve had all year if we want to match that.”

“That’ll be a challenge to our guys is that we’ve got to match the intensity in the focus that Carlton had last year, so that we can play with them this year.”

So far this season, Carlton and St. Mary are side by side in the standings with the Crusaders in first at 2-0 and the Marauders in second at 2-1.

Carlton hasn’t lost a game on the gridiron since Oct. 19, 2023, a 32-28 semi-final playoff upset that coincidentally came at the hands St. Mary. They have gone 10-0 in league play since, which included an undefeated season in 2024 that was topped with the school’s first-ever Provincial Championship in football.

The 13th annual Car Guys Classic kicks off on Friday from Max Clunie Field at 6 p.m.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

On Bluesky: @loganlehmann.bsky.social