The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs football team’s season came to an end on Saturday with a 57-0 road loss to the Swift Current Comprehensive Institute Colts in the first round of the Moose Jaw High School Football League (MJHSFL) playoffs.
Mark Schott, head coach of the Elecs, said the Colts focused in on their top receiver Donny Mortenson from the get-go constantly double and triple teaming the 2016 MJHSFL pass receiving leader. He said a struggle to run the ball coupled with a few drops from their receiving corps due to the wet playing conditions also contributed to their tough day on offence.
“Defensively our game plan was to shut down or at least try and contain Tristan Lockman, their running back,” said Schott. “We put in a defence, a 44 defence, just especially for him and it did a fairly decent job. We seemed to catch Swift Current by surprise with that defence and we made some big tackles in the backfield.”
Schott said the 44 system features four defensive linemen and four linebackers all within three to four yards of the line of scrimmage, which forced the Colts to look to someone other than Lockman, who led the league with 19 touchdowns and 151 rushing carries for 1,385 yards this season, for their offence. He said Swift Current then started throwing the ball a lot more than they usually do and ended up making some big plays allowing them to build a 35-0 lead by halftime.
The Elecs went 1-5 during the MJHSFL regular season posting a 42-28 win over the Moose Jaw Vanier Collegiate Institute Vikings on Sept. 24, which was followed by a 70-12 loss to the Colts (5-1) one week later.
Schott said the win over the Vikings, which was their first in three years, was definitely a highlight for the team this season. He said there were also a lot of individual accomplishments with Mortenson, quarterback Andrew Kehler, defensive and offensive specialist Cameron Rioux and receiver Keaten Tarnes all posting big numbers.
Tarnes finished third in the league for pass receiving yards this season making 24 catches for 406 yards despite only playing four of the Elecs six regular season games. Mortenson led the league in this category with 37 catches for 729 yards bringing his MJHSFL career total to 65 catches and 1,208 yards, which is good for fourth all time.
Rioux managed 18 catches and 201 yards on offence while also recording a league-best five interceptions and 173 yards returned on defence. Kehler threw 96 completed passes on 169 attempts for a league-best 1,600 yards this season bringing his career total to 3,523 passing yards that places him second all time in the MJHSFL behind current Canadian Junior Football League and Regina Thunder standout Sawyer Buettner.
Schott said the team will lose all of these players to graduation this June along with regular starters Troy Leptich, Colten Reed and Ethan Veroba. He said they will be missed, but there are 10 to 12 players on the Estevan Lions Club bantam Oilers that have a chance to move on to high school football next year and the hope is they and their friends take up the opportunity to help the Elecs advance on the gains they made this year.
