The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs football team’s first home playoff game in eight years proved to be a successful outing.
The Elecs defeated the Moose Jaw Vanier Viking 32-19 Friday night at the Woodlawn Athletic Field in the Moose Jaw High School Football League’s Tier 2 semifinal. The Elecs will face the Moose Jaw Peacock Tornadoes in the Tier 2 final next Saturday.
ECS raced out to an 11-0 lead on a receiving touchdown by Nigel Mack, a field goal by Ilya Korita and a punt single by Kaleb Bechtold.
Coach Mark Schott noted it was the first field goal by the Elecs in 10 years.
Vanier responded with a pair of touchdowns to lead 13-11, but the Elecs rallied. Bechtold had a 65-yard touchdown run and Hunter Eagles added a 29-yard rushing touchdown late in the first half for a 25-13 advantage at half-time.
“Our message at the half was we have to close this out and we have to come out and make a big statement to open the second half and finish the game off,” said Schott. “We did just that.”
Eagles returned the opening kickoff of the second half 80 yards for a touchdown to increase the lead to 32-13. The score remained unchanged until a Moose Jaw major in the final minute of the game.
The Elecs defence allowed some yards in the second half, but didn’t surrender a major until that final possession. Vanier’s offence pushed the ball deep into ECS territory with their first two possessions of the second half, but the first drive ended on a fumble, and the second ended when the Elecs stopped Vanier on a third down gamble.
“Those were two big stands by our defence that really crushed Vanier and took back the momentum,” said Schott.
It was the second time the Elecs have defeated the Vikings this year. Last month ECS blanked the Vikings 35-0 in Moose Jaw.
“After we played them (in September), they revamped their offence, and they just went to more of a power run scheme, so they ran the ball a lot more yesterday and throughout the second half of the season,” said Schott.
The Vikings were also much better at blocking down the field, Schott said.
Schott noted there was a good crowd out on Friday night, including some fans who travelled some from Moose Jaw.
ECS will face Peacock in the Tier 2 final for the first time since the opening week of the season. The Tornadoes beat ECS 27-7 that day.
Schott is expecting Peacock to key on Elecs running back Jonah Bachorcik, so other ECS players will need to have strong games.
“He’s a huge part of our offence, but we’re still going to continue to use him and get him the football because he’s a talented player, but we have other guys as well that we can spread the ball around to, and weapons that can make an impact as well,” said Schott.
Offensively, the Tornadoes are a balanced team that runs and passes the ball well, which the Elecs will have to plan for.
