It was far from a win, but the Estevan Sherritt Coal Miners made some progress on Saturday.
In their third game of the season, the atom football team fell 48-12 to the Regina Ticats in the provincial capital.
After being shut out in their first two games, including a 54-0 loss in their home opener, the Miners' offence made strides in Saturday's game with two touchdowns.
"I think the kids are really starting to get it that if you block for our ball carrier, good things will happen," said Estevan head coach Wanda Harron.
Miners quarterback Kaleb Bechtold scored both touchdowns, and both came in the third quarter.
Each touchdown was scored on the run from about the 30-yard line.
"The second one was supposed to be a passing play and he never saw anything. To his credit, he saw that there was an opening and started running. To their credit, the rest of the guys on the offence maintained their blocks. It wasn't all the way around the end, but it wasn't up the middle," said Harron.
"We had a lot of success moving the ball in this game. I credit our slotbacks doing their job blocking and our offensive line blocking better."
The game was scoreless after the first quarter, but the Ticats exploded in the second to take a 21-0 lead at the half. They led 34-12 after the third quarter.
"Defensively, there were a few highlights. There were some good tackles and some in the backfield as well. There was one play where our defence got through into their backfield and their ball carrier was basically carrying that football like a loaf of bread. One of our linebackers, Kolby Forseth, basically took it out of his hands, and I really thought he was going to score but they pushed him out at the 20," Harron said.
She added that getting on the board a couple of times leads to more confidence for everybody going into the second half of the regular season.
"Honestly, at this age for football, in a lot of towns, a lot of the kids think just because they don't touch the ball, they're not that important. We stress that everybody's got a job. Just because you're not the quarterback, just because you're not the centre, just because you're not the featured running back, you should be getting as much credit as whoever scores the touchdown."
The offensive coaches focused on repetition in practice last week and Harron said that paid off.
"I want to give a lot of credit to our offensive coaches. Every play we did, we repeated over and over and over again. We took the offence on their own. They ran a play and if something was wrong, if the angle the running back was taking out of the backfield was wrong, they set up cones and ran it again, ran it again, ran it again. Our playbook is not nearly as big as it was last year, but we're focusing on a few plays and running them as much as possible."
The team will continue to work on tackling on defence, especially angle tackles.
"All of Regina's touchdowns, we never made them work for the touchdowns. They were all end-around runs, which was quite disappointing."
The Miners' next game is at home on Sunday. They will host the Regina Gaitors at noon at Dana Quewezance Memorial Field.
