One week after nearly earning their first win of the year in Weyburn, the Estevan Lions Club Steelers struggled to their fourth straight loss on Saturday, falling 54-0 to the Regina Mounties.
Turnovers haunted the bantam football squad, as they surrendered four interceptions that were returned for touchdowns.
"It's disheartening. You march the ball down the field and get a turnover, when you're close to scoring a touchdown, it hurts, especially with a young team. You need that early success to get their confidence up," said Steelers head coach Phil Zajac.
Two of those pick-sixes came on similar plays in the second quarter, involving the same receiver and same defensive back. Both times, the ball bounced off the receiver's hands directly into the arms of the Mounties player.
"It's hard to watch. You work so hard to get to that spot and then to see it go the other way for six, it's painful," Zajac added.
Between those plays and a 70-yard punt return major late in the first quarter that opened the scoring, only two of the touchdowns surrendered actually came with the Steelers' defence on the field.
"The defence played well. We had Marshall Delorme and Prestin Bergen get three sacks each, we had a couple of interceptions and fumble recoveries," Zajac said.
The Steelers got some momentum going offensively in the early going and held the Mounties off the board for most of the first quarter, but it was all downhill from there, with Regina taking a 30-0 lead at the half.
"We're still on injured reserve with a lot of guys hurt, but we still marched the ball up and down the field," said Zajac.
He said he felt the team played better than in the 42-40 loss to Weyburn the previous week.
The Steelers are back in action on Sunday when they host the Regina Lakers at 1 p.m. at Dana Quewezance Memorial Field.
"We're not going to really add anything this week, we're just going to review what we've got and try each week to get better," Zajac said.
