Carlton's Zane Litzenberger had four touchdowns in Friday's 48-0 win over St. Mary. Here, Litzenberger is seen rumbling with the ball after a short pass from quarterback Colm Phillips. He then tiptoed along the sidelines while breaking several tackles en route to his fourth TD of the game at Max Clunie Field in Prince Albert on Oct. 3, 2025. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW)

By Logan Lehmann

High School Football

Carlton shuts out St. Mary for fourth straight Car Guys Classic victory

Oct 3, 2025 | 9:49 PM

The Carlton Crusaders remained undefeated in the North Sask. Football League (NSFL) on Friday night, taking down their long time rivals from across town, the St. Mary Marauders, 48-0 in the 13th annual Car Guys Classic at Max Clunie Field.

It’s the fourth consecutive rivalry game triumph for Carlton, who have now won six of the 13 contests since the annual contest was founded in 2012. St. Mary has won seven games, with their last win coming in 2021.

Friday’s matchup was deadlocked at zero until the final play of the first quarter, when Carlton quarterback Colm Phillips connected with Zane Litzenberger to put the Cru up 7-0.

That would be the first of a handful of times that the two connected as they met up twice more in the second, in addition to another touchdown in the frame along with a field goal as Carlton led 27-0 at the half.

The second half was much of the same story. Phillips and Litzenberger connected again for a huge gain late in the third getting within the ten yard line, setting up Rylan Morrison for a rushing touchdown two plays later to extend the lead. Carlton added another TD with 56 seconds to play in the quarter before scoring one final touchdown in the fourth quarter to seal the Car Guys Classic win, 48-0.

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Carlton head coach Linsday Strachan said that it was an all around solid team effort.

“We fought some penalties early, but we got those things straightened out,” he explained. “That was a well played football game, [I’m] excited for them to be in the position they’re in and [it’s] a big day for us too, in terms of what that means for the playoff picture moving forward.”

The win pushes Carlton to 3-0 on the year and guarantees the Cru a top spot in the playoffs, as they now get set to wrap up the regular season against the Barons in Lloydminster next week.

“For me, it’s trying to replicate a playoff type intensity,” Strachan continued, when asked about next weeks matchup against a team at the bottom of the standings. “It’s the worst time of year to take a week off so to us, it’s a momentum builder. The thing we know is that in high school football, you’re proving it every week so we’re not taking them for granted just because their record isn’t the greatest right now, we know we’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

For St. Mary, the loss is their second of the year as they close out the regular season with a 2-2 record. Despite the loss, the Marauders also punched their ticket to the playoff and with an exhibition game against Saskatoon’s Walter Murray next week, St. Mary head coach Curt Hundeby said it’s going to be a chance for the team to figure out “how to be tougher”.

“We didn’t have the mental toughness to battle with [Carlton] for four quarters, and that’s something we got to work on this week,” he said.

“We have to figure out how to play tougher and be more consistent. We’ll take a look at our practice plan, we might have to shuffle some personnel, maybe get some guys in different spots. Guys that are banged up, we’re probably going to rest. We got Walter Murray next week, it’s an exhibition game but I mean, we need that game to help us figure out how to be tough. That’s the reality. They’re not going to be an easy opponent, they’re coming out of Saskatoon 6A and they’re going to be tough. So we have to figure out how to be tough against them and use that to get us ready for the playoffs. If we want to do anything in the playoffs, we got to play better than we did today.”

As mentioned, Carlton will faceoff with the Barons in their final regular season game on Thursday, Oct. 9 in Lloydminster with kick off at 6:30 p.m. St. Mary will host Walter Murray in their exhibition game on the same night at the same time at Max Clunie Field in Prince Albert.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com