Despite a tough 38-0 loss to the St. Paul Lions Oct. 5, the Westlock Thunderbirds head coach says his team showed signs of life, but simply ran out of gas.
Now sitting with a 1-3 record in the Wheatland Football League, the Thunderbirds have a bye this week before they face off against the loser of an Oct. 14 match-up between the Wainwright Commandos and the Bonnyville Voyageurs in the quarterfinal.
“At halftime we were down 14-0,” said head coach Jon Kramer recalling the Oct. 5 loss to the Lions.
“We treated the first half as our measuring stick for how much progress we made since the first time we played them. We had a few lower numbers from injuries in previous weeks and we had a few flu bugs going around too, so the boys were pretty tired.”
In their previous match with St. Paul Sept. 15 the Thunderbirds lost 48-6. Kramer noted that since the point was for players to get better at the game, he was more focused on how his team was executing plays. On that end, he said he was impressed with what he saw.
“We were really happy with the technical progress our players have made,” he said.
“We knew our place in the standings was pretty cemented, so it was an everything to gain and nothing to lose type of game.”
But ultimate, Kramer said they need to cut down on their mistakes if they want to keep playing.
“It always comes down to turnovers,” said Kramer. “When you look at the end of a game, the biggest determiner is how many turnovers did you lose or force. We’ve been consistently on the down side, which is tough for us.
“We’ll sustain a long drive of 70 yards or so, then when get down to their end there’s a fumble or an interception or something. Those are the things that are costing us. We keep finding ways to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
While the win-loss record does not reflect it, Kramer said the Thunderbirds are playing well, pointing out that veteran running back Robert Bokenfohr is leading the league in rushing with 552 yards and quarterback Curtis Vesely sits fifth in the league with 191 passing yards.
Now heading into playoffs, Kramer said the Thunderbirds are making the best out of a short season that has seen a number of teams drop out of the league.
He also noted that many of the teams the Thunderbirds were going up against had an experience advantage because of their established bantam football programs.
“For a lot of our guys, this season has been their first games,” said Kramer. “We had a lot of second-year players who didn’t get a lot of reps last year. We just have to keep working and building off individual confidence boosts and turn that into a team thing.”
Once the Thunderbirds know who they will be playing in the quarterfinal, they will be off to either Wainwright or Bonnyville Oct. 21.
