The Steinbach Regional Secondary School lost it's 2017 Winnipeg High School Football League season opener 15-6 to the Dakota Lancers Friday night at A.D. Penner Park.

"Talk about a learning experience," said Sabres head coach Jamie Peters shortly after watching his team play their first-ever game in the John Potter AAA Division. "We just shot ourselves in the foot numerous times. I was very disappointed in our boys body language in the first half. I just felt like they thought that they were defeated already. They hung tough. We competed and we battled."

"I was very happy in the second half. We held our heads high and we battled. I kind of let into the guys quite a bit at halftime. It's a different mindset that these guys got to figure out and they've got to learn how to compete at this level. It's a learning experience."

Defensive back Tyler Bueckert was in on numerous tackles, had a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and blocked a kick.

"Our defense played 42 snaps in the first half and hung tough," said Peters. "They gave up two majors but ultimately they were on the field a lot and we asked a lot of them."

The Sabres had issues on offense but they did have a chance to get on the board midway through the third quarter.

The SRSS drove all the way to the Lancers 11-yard line but turned the ball over on downs.

Steinbach Regional finally found the end zone when Sheycoy Selent ran in from one-yard out with 4:39 left in the fourth quarter.

The two-point convert failed.

"We got to take anything," said Peters. "We had a lot of penalties that helped us out on that drive unfortunately but anything we can take that's positive, we got to keep working at it. Our guys have got to know that we are inches away but all of our little mistakes compound and it blows a play up. In the Canadian game of football, a penalty or a missed route or a setback is a killer so we can't afford to make those mistakes."

The Sabres next game is Thursday, September 14th against the Sisler Spartans at A.D. Penner Park.