There might have been a power outage at Woodlawn Field in the last 1:22 of the football game Tuesday afternoon, but there was no power outage in the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs offence late in the game in their victory over the Moose Jaw Vanier Vikings.
The Elecs scored four touchdowns in the second half, figuring out the Vanier defence in time for their first win in Moose Jaw High School Football League action in two years, leading to head coach Mark Schott’s first Gatorade shower since then.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said. “It’s a little cold but I’ll warm up.”
Jonah Bachorcik worked hard for his two touchdown receptions, getting his second major with 1:57 remaining on the clock.
“It’s really amazing to come out here and win another game when a lot of people look at Estevan and think that we’re just underdogs,” said Bachorcik. “But to come out here and show how great of a team we really are this year it’s just awesome.”
The Elecs then got a huge interception return from Colton Kolakowski on the Vikings next drive, just as across the street from the field, a tree apparently fell on a power line, sparking a fire and cutting power to the field, making the rest of the game run by cell phone timers of off-field officials.
A 22-yard pass from Elecs quarterback Kaleb Bechtold to Rylan Erdelyan, and a two-point convert to Bachorcik, gave the Elecs the two possession lead at 20-7,
The Vanier quarterback fumbled in their next possession and Brennen Stubel picked up the ball and ran a few yards into the end zone for the 26-7 win.
“We were able to take advantage of some of the matchups we had with our receivers and the coverages they were using,” Schott said. “They were leaving some of our receivers open on the deep sideline third of the field. So we decided to try and attack that and it seemed to pay off.”
The game wasn’t easy by any stretch for the Elecs, who only got four first downs in the first half.
“(There were) a lot of mix ups, a lot of people being in new positions having to learn new plays,” said Bachorcik. “We adjusted and we adapted and got used to how we played. We picked up on their defence and we just did what we could.”
The Elecs defence bent but didn’t break on a few plays, leading to big gains but also touchdown-saving tackles and times when they forced the Vikings out of bounds after allowing a big run.
“We made some huge, timely plays,” Schott said. “When it was still a five-point game, we came up with a big interception and that helped swing momentum our way and then we went down and punched it in. We were in their face in the backfield all game and it was great to see.”
The Elecs’ next action is Saturday against the Weyburn Eagles. There won’t be a lot of time for celebrating Tuesday’s win.
“The nice thing is that Weyburn and Vanier play a similar style so we’re going to have some familiarity there,” said Schott. “Weyburn will make some adjustments and throw some wrinkles in there but it’s nice they have some similarity in their systems moving forward.”
