Despite a lack of experience coming into the season, the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs football team is learning and making up the gap well.
Thursday, they went down 32-6 to the Moose Jaw Central Cyclones (3-3) at halftime but the second half of the game to lose by only 38-28, their closest game of the year.
“We just talked at halftime that we're better than what we showed in that first half,” said Elecs (0-5) head coach Mark Schott. “We just have to go out and show it. We have to show up at the start of the game and we can't dig ourselves a hole every game and expect to come out on top.”
Central quarterback Ethan Johnson hit CJ Vincent with a 16-yard touchdown pass only a minute and a half into the first quarter. Although the convert was blocked, the Elecs offence was also stymied, and only four minutes into the game, Johnson hit Josh Reidy with a 45-yard touchdown pass and run to take a 13-0 lead after the conversion.
The score was 32-0 by the end of the first quarter, but the Elecs dominated the other three, starting with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Elecs quarterback Rylan Erdelyan to Hunter Eagles to bring a little bit back for ECS.
The defence stepped up in the second half, with defensive back Triston Sorenson coming to play with an interception and a big fumble recovery in the second half.
“We had big leadership from our seven seniors,” said Sorenson. “They kind of helped us get our feet back after the bad first quarter.”
“We needed a spark in that second half,” Schott said. “We got some turnovers, forced some pressure and... I think that's when things really started to turn our way. Then our offence got going and we were able to put some points up. Triston had a huge game and there were some other guys in our front seven that were able to get in the face of the quarterback to lead to those interceptions as well.”
Nigel Mack caught a pair of touchdown passes in the fourth quarter for 79 and 11 yards, while Eagles rushed for an eight yard score. Eagles ended the game with 119 yards rushing and 104 yards receiving. Mack had a total of 132 yards receiving. Erdelyan was 23-for-49 in the air for 322 yards passing. This, after first half totals of three yards rushing for the team and just over 100 yards passing.
The Elecs will graduate seven players this year, and with the large amount of players that can return, the importance of lessons learned this year won't be lost.
“I said from the start of the season that we're young and inexperienced and we're gaining experience as the season goes on,” Schott said. “We return a large portion of our team which is really exciting for next year. But we lose some key players in that seven that are departing.”
“I'm pretty happy,” said Sorenson. “We've got a really good group of rookies here so I'm really excited for next season.”
The Elecs finished their regular season with a game Tuesday in Swift Current, with the results unavailable at press time.
