They lost arguably their best player on their first play of the game, and it didn't get any better from there for the Estevan Lions Club Steelers on Monday night.
The bantam football club fell 46-0 to the Regina Stampeders in the Queen City in their season opener.
Monday's loss was part of a rough start to the season for Penta Completions Estevan Minor Football, with the atom Miners having lost 36-0 to the Regina Bombers on Sunday.
For the Steelers, star running back Levi Pick went down with a twisted ankle on the team's first play after rushing for 17 yards.
"The offence struggled a bit with the loss of Levi. He's one of the top running backs in the province. It's kinda like losing Walter Payton," said Steelers head coach Phil Zajac. "The offence struggled a bit, but it's nothing that can't be fixed. What I told the kids is that nobody quit. We played hard all the way through the game."
Pick is considered day-to-day as the Steelers prepare for Saturday's home opener against the Regina Renegades. The 5 p.m. tilt is part of Football Day in Estevan at Dana Quewezance Memorial Field.
Zajac said the Steelers particularly struggled in the first half as they adjusted to new teammates.
"It was new, you know, we're a new team, we haven't played together, so you're getting to know your teammates. I don't think the score really reflects the game. Did we score a touchdown? No. We had lots of good things. We blocked five extra points, we blocked two punts, we had great plays by a lot of veterans."
Zajac said that with the Stampeders being a new entry in Regina Minor Football this year, he wasn't sure what to expect from them.
"I figured it was going to be one way or the other. I didn't think it would be a close game. The Stampeders are a new team that we've never played before, so we didn't know anything about them. I thought we were going to blow them out or they were going to blow us out, and unfortunately it was them."
After a humbling start to the year, Zajac said there is plenty to work on in practice this week.
"On offence, we're going to work on execution, we're going to work on our pass blocking. Defensively, they didn't get a bunch of yards on us, but big plays, they probably had five big plays for touchdowns. For a young team, that's something that I anticipated, something I talked about that we couldn't let happen. It just makes it too easy. We're going to work on tightening up the defence, just tightening up our game in general."
