Bantams bring record to 4-0

Times Reporter   

 

Week five of Spartan football is complete, and the bantam boys are leading the way; they’re the only team to have won all of their games so far, most recently against Springbank at home on Sept. 28, by a score of 12-0.

“Defense was solid today. It’s become a staple of our team over the last couple of games – strong, tough defense,” said Coach Doug Klauck. 

Twelve points, however, is a low total for a team that had accumulated 132 in their first three games of the season. Klauck blames laziness.

“Our offensive line wasn’t blocking. They just didn’t have the step they needed to get the job done,” he said. “Practices have been getting a little slack. It shows with some of the guys out of position on certain plays. We just need to be consistent and continue practicing four nights a week.”

The bantam boys hope to continue their hot streak into Cochrane on Oct. 5.

“This was a big game for us. We’re shooting for home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and another shut out would help us,” said Klauck.

The peewees have only one loss on their record; they defeated Rocky Mountain House 38-0 after the bantam game.

“We’re executing a whole lot better than we did from the second game and the first game,” said Coach Chuck Holloway. “I tried to explain to them, I knew this was one of the weaker teams in the league. So a lot of my guys got to play more than first string.”

Most minor injuries suffered in previous games had healed, leaving many more players to participate.

“We’ve still got room for improvement,” Holloway said. “We oversized them on the line, so we pretty much imposed our will on them. But other than that, I think we need to work on – we took too many penalties.”

Size of the kids will look to be very important in this league; for example, against Lacombe, Holloway had trouble against one particularly tall boy on the opposing team.

“The rest of the teams are pretty evenly matched like we are, that’s the only team that’s the big size difference,” said Holloway. “I know it’s going to be us and them in the championship.”

And as for that one Lacombe giant?

“Hit him every single time. I hope that works,” he said.

The peewees will travel to Red Deer on Oct. 5, while Strathmore High School’s (SHS) team stays at home to battle Crescent Heights High School at 2:30 p.m. The SHS Spartans lost an exhibition game against Chestermere on Sept. 24, 41-14, and again this past Saturday, 39-8 to Brooks.

“We’re just trying to get some execution down,” said Coach Carl Seafoot. “Things are just starting to click. Not that Saturday’s game was any reflection of that though – I was almost thinking that was one of our worst games of the year.”

SHS is still looking for their first win of the year. Offensively – especially against Brooks – Seafoot said they just weren’t connecting. 

“Most of the other games, you could always say, well, that was working, or that was working. But we didn’t have much working at all in this one,” he said. “We’re struggling out of the gate; letting the guys get a good jump on us. We always seem to be fighting out of the hole.”