The Estevan Lions Club bantam football Oilers used a complete game effort to shut out the Moose Jaw Raiders 21-0 at Elks Field on Friday.
“Our defence was outstanding,” said Oilers head coach Paul Duncan. “We had two goal-line stands where we stuffed them on the one-yard line for six plays basically, two separate occasions, so it was fantastic that way. Our defence really held us in the game, eliminated a lot of the opportunities that the Raiders had and set us up for some good field position.”
Duncan said a week-and-a-half break before the Raiders game allowed the team to work on a new pistol formation offence that has the quarterback lining up four yards from the line of scrimmage allowing for a better read of the defence and a hurried-up movement to catch their opposition while they're still preparing. He said the wet and windy conditions during the game didn't allow them to use the new offence that much, but going to it a couple of times did give them a different look.
Oilers running back Nigel Mack got his team on the board 11 minutes into the first quarter on an 80-yard dash to the outside, which was made possible through a great block by Caleb Reetz on a Raiders defensive end. Mack scored the game's second major 9:43 into the third quarter on a 65-yard run through the interior and to the outside after the Oilers offensive line provided a block to spring him.
Kaled Bechtold notched the final touchdown of the game seven minutes into the fourth quarter on a quarterback sneak with centre Ryan Trobert busting open a seam for him to run through. Mack kicked all three converts.
Duncan said their defensive tackles in Joel Mckersie and James Knibbs played a big part in the win as they both helped with a couple of fumble recoveries and sealed up the middle. He said the offensive line also stepped up their game against the Raiders (0-4) and they'll need that effort again this Saturday when the Oilers (1-3) welcome the Weyburn Falcons (3-1), which they lost to two weeks ago, to Woodlawn Field.
“The game plan going into it is to make sure we play our game (and) make sure we come out firing like we did against Moose Jaw,” said Duncan. “We had really great practices throughout all of last week, so they're starting to buy in and understand the type of effort it takes.”
