For the second straight week, the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs failed to get up for the start of a football game.
The Elecs lost 66-20 to the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders on Saturday at Yorkton. The lopsided score was a result of an uninspired first half that saw the Elecs fall behind 49-0 by the end of the second quarter.
Mark Schott, head coach of the Elecs, said their opening drive looked promising with the offence marching the ball down to the Raiders' 20-yard line, but a few penalties pushed them back out of field-goal range. He said a short-yardage attempt on third down then gave Yorkton possession and they came straight down the field and scored their first touchdown.
“Yorkton's offence went with a no-huddle offence, which was very effective,” said Schott. “They did a good job of tiring out our defensive line, especially since a lot of our (defensive) linemen are also playing on the (offensive) line. So, that was a strategy that they put in that really took a toll on our defence.”
Schott said the Raiders offence employs an effective run game that uses a lot of misdirection, which they used to gain yardage on the Elecs early on. He said the Elecs did a better job of shutting down the Raiders in the second half and executing their own game plan on offence, but a 49-0 hole was just too big to climb out of.
Elecs receiver Keaton Tarnes got Estevan on the board 4:19 into the third quarter with a 73-yard catch and run touchdown with Carter Davenport recording the two-point convert. Donny Mortenson followed that up at the 8:13 mark of the third quarter with a six-yard major before making a 87-yard catch and run for a touchdown 6:33 into the fourth quarter.
Overall, Tarnes made eight catches for 205 yards and Mortenson recorded eight receptions for 181 yards. Elecs quarterback Andrew Kehler completed 25 passes on 33 attempts for 497 yards.
Schott said the 49-0 first-half deficit comes on the heels of a 28-0 first-half letdown the previous week in Moose Jaw against the Albert E. Peacock Collegiate Tornadoes. He said the best way they can make sure that doesn't happen again is for all the Elecs' players to make a determined effort to come to every practice so they'll be able to line up mock defences and offences, but they'll also be looking at some game-day solutions.
“We're going to make a tweak in our pre-game routine on the field just in terms of what we do when we're warming up and maybe just to help with the focus and preparation to get us more ready to play,” he said, noting they'll be putting that into effect this Saturday at Woodlawn Field for their game against the Moose Jaw Vanier Collegiate Institute Vikings. “Hopefully that is the boost that we need there.”
