A Thursday night game under the lights at Dana Quewezance Memorial Field in front of a good crowd of cheering spectators is how the Penta Completions Estevan Minor Football atom Miners team finished their 2015 season.
The Miners lost 21-14 to the Moosomin Little Generals, with Estevan scoring their last touchdown on the final play of the game. The two teams battled throughout the two 40-minute straight halves of learn-to-play ball with the clubs exchanging touchdowns before the first 10 minutes of the opening half were up.
“It was really encouraging seeing the kids out there and getting to play under the lights here in Estevan,” said Miners co-coach Kevin Mortenson. “I’m happy we got that game off.”
Mortenson said that was the Miners final match of the season, after playing Weyburn twice and completing this home and home with Moosomin. He said plans are already in the works to have next year’s club of seven to nine year olds play games against Moosomin and Weyburn again as well as adding a couple more communities into the mix.
“The kids had a lot of fun,” he said. “They were pretty enthusiastic about coming back next year and doing it again. Some of them will be Chargers. There were eight or nine kids coming from the Oxbow area and also one coming from Bromhead and they are pretty heavily committed about making it to practices…and a lot of times they were at practice before I was.”
The Miners learned the basics of football throughout the two-month season, with a focus offensively on running the ball. However, a few passing plays were thrown in to keep any opponents off guard, which was the case in the final game against Moosomin.
“Our offense scored the points,” said Mortenson. “The defence, they got their hands involved with it. They held them pretty strong keeping them out of the end zone, so you couldn’t ask for much more.”
