Six inches of snow and ice, a driving wind and an inability to control the Central Collegiate Cyclones run game led to a regular-season ending 34-14 loss for the Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs football team at Moose Jaw’s Gutheridge Field on Thursday.
Mark Schott, head coach of the Elecs, said they enjoyed their best run game of the season with Josh Sinclair leading the way making 22 carries for 72 yards including a one-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but it still paled in comparison to the Cyclones work on the ground. Central tallied 25 rushing attempts for 280 yards on the snow and ice covered field with receiver Jonah Branning accounting for eight carries, 204 yards and five majors.
Schott said they have good size on their defensive front seven, but Branning is extremely fast and was able to make plays either from the backfield on handoffs or pitches or from the slotback position where he’d get a screen pass past their bigs and use his speed to get to the open field. He said the Elecs run game experienced some troubles in the first half, so they went to a passing attack that was hampered by the cold and windy weather only to click in the final two quarters.
“In the second half some of those plays where the ball was slipping we seemed to connect on a few more of them,” said Schott. “We were able to move the ball much better in the second half and we punched a couple in. Zack Miller had a big catch and slipped on the field and fell down at the one-yard line. The snow took him down. Then Josh Sinclair got I think his first rushing touchdown of the season and punched it in to get us up to 14.”
The loss leaves the Elecs with a 1-5 record and a seventh-place spot in the Moose Jaw High School Football League (MJHSFL). They now have a week-and-a-half off before the first round of the post-season when they’ll play an Oct. 22 road game against the team that finishes second.
As it stands right now, the Swift Current Comprehensive Institute Colts (3-1) have the best chance to claim second place, but a mash-up of teams in the middle of the standings eliminates any possibility of determining who the Elecs eventual opponent will be until the end of the MJHSFL season on Oct. 15.
Schott said they have a few guys banged up including fullback and linebacker Ethan Veroba and receiver Keaten Tarnes who were unable to play against the Cyclones and the break will allow them to hopefully heal up in time for the quarter-finals. He said the time off also helps them to get in some more work on fundamentals during practice to make sure they’re ready to go.
“We’re going to do some tackling drills because the field conditions played a part in it, but we also missed some plays on defence,” he said. “On both sides of the ball we need to improve our execution, so we’re going to go through some reps and just rapid fire get guys going through the plays and going to where they’re supposed to be, so that there’s little confusion as to what their roles and jobs are when they’re on the field.”
