They may not have come out on top as far as the final scoreboard is concerned this season, but the very fact the Carpenter High School Spartans football team was able to return to action after several years on the sidelines makes them winners in the eyes of coaches, fans and the community alike. This is the opinion of Spartans head coach Colton Ethier following Friday’s (Oct. 10) 84-32 loss to the Kindersley Kobras to close out Meadow Lake’s 2025 high school football season. “We started off really slow,” Ether told Northern Pride. “The opening kickoff bounced off our returners’ face mask and was recovered by Kindersley. Despite turning the ball over on the opening kickoff, we were only down 14-0 at the end of the first quarter.” Ethier went on to note the Spartans were able to keep it within a couple scores through most of the first quarter, but Kindersley started to pull away with a 49- 16 lead at halftime.

“Caleb Rodrigue had another good game for us, scoring all of our touchdowns,” Ethier said. “This was also the first time our team played an entire game of stop time football, so, although we gave up the same amount of points as last week, it was an improvement for our defence.” Spartans player Evan Klassen got an interception in the second half, with Ethier adding how good it was to see the team’s defence force some more turnovers. “The turnaround from playing a Tuesday game (the Oct. 7 encounter with John Paul II Collegiate) to a Friday game was tough on our team,” Ethier stated. “They don’t even make the pros play the Monday night and Thursday night games.” In spite of this, Ethier acknowledges the strong effort put forth by the athletes and the support the Spartans have received since returning to the field earlier this year. “I just want to say thank you to our athletes for coming out and getting better this season, especially our Grade 12s,” he said. “I also want to say a huge thank you to the community for their continued support.” The Spartans closed out the season with a record of 0-6.