Oak Park dominates Steinbach in football season opener

The Steinbach Regional Sabres didn’t exactly start their 2026 Winnipeg High School Football League campaign how they imagined it.

They would have always been in tough against defending champions Oak Park in their home opener Sept. 11 but when Raiders star AJ Bangura snagged the opening kick-off with a one-handed catch and took it the distance for a clean touchdown, it became clear the Sabres were in for a long day.

“It’s a tough play, (Bangura) is a special player, you saw that out there,” head coach Stephen Fedus said after the game.

“He was tough to stop.”

Oak Park went on to win 69-14, finishing the day with nearly 450 rushing yards on just 22 attempts.

“The second quarter was tough for the kids,” Fedus said.

“That’s something we’re working on. When you’re playing the top three or four teams and you’re going up against an athlete that is better than you, we need to find a way to keep competing. In life you’re going to be competing against people for jobs, competing against people in all areas and you need to find a way to get better.”

The coaching staff was optimistic improvement in the second half will continue when the Sabres line up against some of the other expected top teams this year.

The Steinbach air attack looked dangerous all day despite the score, with quarterback Mason Wiebe able to stretch the field and complete some long passes. He finished with 249 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“The potential is there, it’s about seeing how fast we can improve in that area and generate some consistency,” Fedus said.

“There’s opportunities for big plays, but there’s little things, like being offsides on your waggle that’s hurting us. We’ve got to fix that.”

One of those touchdown passes was caught by grade 12 standout Parker Mantie, who announced his commitment to the University of Manitoba later in the week.

The Sabres will be in Brandon to take on Vincent Massey Sept. 18 and are set to return to A.D. Penner Sept. 25th for their annual homecoming game. The Vikings are 0-1 after dropping a contest to the Winnipeg-based Vincent Massey 41-0 last week.

Down the road in Oakbank, the Springfield Sabres got their season in Tier 2 off to a winning start, rumbling to a 36-8 win over the Kelvin Clippers.

River Wiebe was dominant for the Sabres, scoring all five of the team’s touchdowns and picking up 151 of his team’s 270 yards on the ground. He was also the only player to catch throws from quarterback Colton DeClercq.

Springfield are playing West Kildonan Sept. 17 with kickoff at 3:30 p.m.