The Swift Current Colts football team ran the ball 47 times for 470 yards in their 49-0 win over the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs Saturday at Colts Field, while only connecting on one passing play for 15 yards.
“They had a big offensive line and a couple of big running backs and it was clear right away on what their offensive game plan was,” said Elecs head coach Mark Schott. “It was just to use their size and their big bodies to pound the ball on our defence, which isn’t overly big.”
Tristan Lockman is one of those big running backs and he ran in his first of five touchdowns on the afternoon with 8:34 remaining in the first quarter. Lockman carried the ball 22 times in the game and amassed 281 yards including a 67-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and a 62-yard score in the third.
“We were going into the game with the mentality that this was a game that we definitely had a shot of winning,” said Schott about the winless Elecs (0-4) facing the then-winless Colts (1-4). “I think weather played a factor more so on our end because we have more success moving the ball through the air than on the ground, so that really limited our passing game and our offence struggled.”
Schott said they probably had their best running game of the season against the Colts. The Elecs amassed 120 yards on the ground with running back Levi Pick racking up 97 of those on 24 carries. Quarterback Andrew Kehler helped provide the Elecs’ 90 more yards on offence through the air by completing nine of 18 pass attempts.
“The rain was a constant factor throughout the game,” said Schott. “Swift Current, they didn’t really have to adjust their offence all that much because they run the ball quite a bit, so it wasn’t a big shift in the game plan for them. We were able to complete some short passes and move the ball through the air a little bit, but we have a lot of speed with our receiving core. The field conditions and the rain didn’t really add up to us having success getting the ball out to them.”
The Elecs are back on the field Thursday with a home date against the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones (3-1). Five days later they complete their regular season schedule in Moose Jaw against the top-ranked Peacock Tornadoes (4-0). Four days after that the Elecs are locked in to play the Central Cyclones again at Moose Jaw in the playoff quarter-finals.
Schott said coupled with the Saturday tilt against the Colts that will be four games in 15 days for his guys, which is a lot of football for a team that only brought 26 players to Swift Current. However, he said they’re going to get right back at it in practice to work on basic offensive and defensive systems and position fundamentals to prepare for the next two weeks.
“The nice thing I guess with the schedule is we get to see Central very closely before our playoff game against them, so we won’t really have any surprises heading into our playoff game,” he said. “That could be an advantage for us to establish some familiarity with the opponent.”
