The Estevan Lions Club bantam Oilers made a few big steps towards fielding a winning football team last week, but a couple of broken plays on offence and some untimely penalties cost the club their third defeat of the season.
In a 23-6 road loss to the Weyburn Falcons at Darold Kot Field, the Oilers’ Hunter Eagles made the team’s first advances on defence stripping Falcons receiver Trey Sandiford deep in Estevan’s zone on Weyburn’s opening drive. On the Falcons’ next possession, a series of Oilers’ penalties moved their opposition to the Estevan one-yard line before Ethan West carried the ball in for a major to give Weyburn a 6-0 lead after the first quarter.
Both defences kept the game close early in the second frame before Falcons quarterback Brett Bowler ran in a 44-yard touchdown with 52 seconds remaining. Shortly afterwards, a quarterback sneak by Oilers pivot Kaleb Bechtold on Estevan’s next possession brought the ball to the Falcons’ 37-yard line, which coupled with a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, gave the away side prime field position on the Weyburn 22. Bechtold then threw the ball to Emmanuel Garrate with no time remaining in the second quarter with the receiver making the catch and run for the touchdown to bring the score to 13-6 at halftime.
“Kaleb, our quarterback, played well,” said Oilers assistant coach Justyn Taillon. “He held in there, made some smart decisions and Emmanuel made the catch. It was a good message for them. They were really excited and it gave them something to look forward to. Get another one and get back out there.”
The second half proved to be a defensive showdown as both clubs were unable to sustain any long drives. Falcons kicker Braxton Rogal supplied some offence 6:37 into the third quarter with a short-yardage field goal to put the home side up 16-6 before Ethan West got the game’s final major 13 minutes later with a run up the middle from the Oilers’ three-yard line, which was followed by a Rogal convert.
“We started off slow taking some unnecessary penalties,” said Falcons head coach Brett Cooper. “Some basics we were a little sloppy on coming out of the gates, so we gutted out until we basically got ourselves going where we started to get some yards.”
Taillon said the game in Weyburn came four days after their previous contest making for little time to prepare and for any hurting players to heal. He said the way they battled despite the short layoff should supply them with some positives to look on heading into their next game, which is this Saturday on the road against the Moose Jaw Raiders (0-2).
“I was pretty happy as we moved the ball (and the) defence held,” said Taillon. There are “just some things we need to clean up.”
