The Estevan Lions Club Steelers got on the board three times in their final regular season game, but it wasn't enough to pull out a win.
The bantam football squad closed out their year with a 28-19 road loss to the Balgonie Griffins on Sunday.
The Steelers fell to 0-7-1, while the fifth-place Griffins improved to 4-4.
Cameron Rioux, Tristan Honan and Colton Watchman scored the touchdowns for the Steelers, who trailed 19-0 at the half.
"We just struggled in the first half. We couldn't get things to work, we had bad execution, turnovers," Zajac said, noting that the defence was often dealing with a short field after turnovers.
"If we would've played the whole game we would've beaten them. I don't understand. You try and prep for that and play from the opening kickoff. It's not like they took out their first-stringers. We were facing the same guys," said Zajac.
Steelers quarterback Andrew Kehler had a strong day, utilizing his receivers more with the Griffins focusing on running back Levi Pick.
"Everybody knows about Levi, of course, so they prepared for him, but then we went to the passing game and Andrew kind of picked them apart. We marched the ball pretty much every time we had it," Zajac said.
"He's only in Grade 9, his first year on the Steelers, and he's gotten better every week. He's seeing the field a little bit better, which is important for a quarterback, to be able to find the open receiver and not just throw the ball up is a big difference."
Zajac said he felt the Steelers played better on Sunday than they did in a 38-38 tie against the Regina Sun Devils last month.
The Steelers had also played an exhibition game against Notre Dame on Oct. 2 in Estevan.
Pick led the way with two touchdowns in the 29-22 loss, which was played on running time.
"We had chances to win it. They have a couple of athletes who are very exceptional. We did lots of good things, we had interceptions, we caused fumbles, our defence played real well," Zajac said.
The Steelers will not play in a bowl game and are now done for the year.
