Down 8-0 to the Moose Jaw Lions at Woodlawn Field on Saturday with 2:23 left in the first half, Estevan Century 21 peewee Chargers safety Kolby Forseth made a play that changed the course of the game.
Forseth intercepted a Marc Belanger pass at midfield and ran the ball down to the Lions 20-yard line. Chargers quarterback Alec Waldegger then completed an 18-yard pass to Keegan Merriman to set up a QB sneak from the two-yard line for the touchdown with no time left on the clock making the score 8-6 heading into the second half.
Jason Bresciani, head coach of the Chargers, said that interception seemed to spark the team, which had come out flat in the first half. He said once the third quarter began the offence started to move the football by setting up different plays to capture the momentum.
The Chargers (2-1) pinned the Lions in their own zone through the first eight minutes of the third quarter with Moose Jaw’s Mason Daviduk, who scored the Lions first-half touchdown, going for a momentum shift of his own running a first-down handoff from his own 23-yard line to the Chargers 32 with just over four minutes remaining. Estevan stopped the drive only to give up possession of the ball at around the same point of the field on a punt return by the Lions Carter Price. A no-yards penalty on the tackle and run by Daviduk moved the ball to the Chargers three-yard line for the start of the fourth quarter.
Two straight runs by the Lions Dylan Montgomery failed to get the ball into the end zone. A handoff to Daviduk came next, but the Chargers defence held forcing a turnover on their own six-yard line.
“The linebackers and defensive line, they did their job,” said Bresciani. “They filled the gaps and made their tackles. That’s what their job is. That was a momentum swing there because they should have scored.”
Waldegger and running backs Klayten Piippo and Conner Terness then combined to run the ball out to their 50-yard line over the next six plays. The quarterback then made a dash to the sidelines and down the field to put the Chargers ahead 12-8 with four minutes remaining. He notched the final point on the convert by running to the side of the line of scrimmage and ahead into the end zone.
“We played pretty well with the wind and the rain,” said Lions head coach Darrell Kasper, noting the loss puts their record at 1-3 and the team likely out of the playoff picture. “We made a few mental errors. We’ve got probably 20 new kids this year, so they’re learning spots, but overall I thought we played well.”
Bresciani said the win gives them a chance to finish top four in the Moose Jaw Minor Football League, but they’ll need a win against the Moose Jaw Mustangs (1-2) at Woodlawn Field this Saturday to help make that happen. He said the Mustangs will be a similar test to what the team saw from the Lions, so they’ll be doing what they can over practice this week to be ready to match the tough competition.
