Only two weeks into the 2025 Canadian Junior Football League season and even Hayden McMahon is a bit in shock at taking first-team quarterback reps with the Saskatoon Hilltops.
It’s playing time he never expected to have when he arrived for training camp with the Hilltops less than a month ago.
“Going into the season I really didn’t imagine myself in this position,” said McMahon. “But I worked really hard to do this and to have this opportunity. To have a good coaching game plan, it was honestly pretty simple for me to play out there.”
Through a series of injuries to begin the season at pivot, the 20-year-old from Biggar, Sask., is the new starting quarterback for the Hilltops and is coming off his first career CJFL start last Sunday at SMF Field in a 46-6 victory over the Edmonton Huskies.
McMahon had a productive day for Saskatoon, completing 7-of-15 passes to throw for 122 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the win.
“The national anthem hit me and I darn near cracked up,” said McMahon. “I almost cried because of the pressure and everything, but it felt so good to get out on the field and just get that first play in.”
McMahon’s opportunity arrived with some instability in the quarterback room following the graduation of Prairie Football Conference MVP Trey Reider in the off-season.
Last season’s backup quarterback Brexton Elias was penciled in as the opening day starter for the Hilltops, however an injury has forced Elias to the sidelines through the first two weeks of the season.
Second-string option Charlie Molder took the first snaps of the year for Saskatoon in their Week 1 contest visiting the Winnipeg Rifles on Aug. 10, until an injury to his throwing arm would take him out of the game after just three attempts.
Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant said it’s been a tricky process seeing so many of their quarterbacks go down so early, but is praising the job of McMahon to adapt on the fly.
“I guess welcome to football right?” said Sargeant. “It’s always next man up, you never know what your scenario or situation is. We didn’t think we’d be dealing with our third-string quarterback at this stage, but at the end of the day here’s what it is.”
“(McMahon) has done an excellent job so far of matching what the expectations are and taking on the responsibilities.”
The Hilltops put up over 450 yards of offence against the Huskies on Sunday, which marked a major bounce-back for the team after being blown out 31-11 on the road against the Rifles in their Week 1 contest.
That loss not only broke an undefeated streak of 19 straight regular season wins for Saskatoon, but came as their first regular season loss since September 17, 2022.
“We took a lot of lumps and there’s two ways to respond,” said Sargeant. “You either learn from the lessons given or you sort of turtle — we didn’t see that. We saw a tough team response, a proud team response and we certainly protected our home field that’s for sure.”
According to running back David Collins, what followed that loss to Winnipeg was an intense week of practice which reinforced the standard which the Hilltops franchise has historically set.
“I truly didn’t know what to expect going into the week following,” said Collins. “Coach just drilled it into us [having] a hard practice, we need to be more physical, we need to hold blocks longer, we need to hit holes harder. That’s what he preached going into Week 2 and that’s exactly what we ended up doing.”
A big part of Saskatoon’s production in Sunday’s victory over Edmonton was the work of Collins on the ground, rushing for 157 yards and a pair of touchdowns including a 75-yard scamper to the end zone in the second quarter.
He said that run has given him a sense of confidence in his ground game and was aided by excellent blocking down field.
“Having a run like that really meant a lot,” said Collins. “It let me know that I still got all of the juices, it let me know that the [offensive line] is still working hard in the trenches making sure they’re giving me a hole. That’s really all I can ask for, honestly.”
The ‘Toppers’ will now host Winnipeg this coming Sunday in a rematch of the Rifles’ opening week rout in Manitoba, setting the stage for the biggest game so far of both teams’ CJFL seasons.
McMahon is confident, however, in the team’s ability to give Winnipeg their best, with the goal of improving to 2-1 on the season and a bit of redemption sprinkled in.
“It almost feels like a get-back game,” said McMahon. “We didn’t really show ourselves in Week 1. We showed a little bit in Week 2, but I think we got even more for Week 3 and we’re going to build on that for the rest of the season too.”
Sunday’s game between the Hilltops and Rifles is set for 1 p.m. at SMF Field.