Badgers flagged heavily during demolition streak

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

It’s tough to tell which there is more of these days for the Strathmore Community Football Association senior Badgers – penalties or touchdowns.
The Badgers hammered the 0-4 Carstairs Tigers 53-0 Sept. 30 at Crowther Memorial Junior High School Field for their third-straight blowout victory.
They jacked up eight touchdowns on the Tigers, but also committed 11 infractions.
“We don’t want to be taking this many penalties. It’s the one thing we have really needed to work on the past three weeks,” said Badgers Head Coach Sean Seafoot. “We have been having really good scores, but the penalties are killing us. When we get to the playoffs, they’re gonna kill us even more.”
But working on discipline is a lot more difficult than working on offensive line formation or kick return coverage.
Especially with a small roster that saw another four players leave the game with a variety of injuries.
“That’s the challenging part; it’s a difficult thing to work on at practice,” he said “We tell them to stay disciplined, but that hasn’t worked. And you can only do so much hitting in practice without worrying about guys getting hurt. We lost John Gibbons to a broken ankle earlier this year in a tackling drill. It’s a tricky thing to work on at this stage.”
Making up for their lack of self-control was a lack of tackling on the part of the Tigers.
Leading the way on the ground was Luke Henry, who scampered for four touchdowns, the longest being a 37-yard run in the first half.
The Badgers (3-1) led 35-0 at half, and piled on more with a pair of touchdowns from Brandon Middlemiss and a touchdown from Owen Grill and a punt return touchdown from Quentin Frayn.
Frayn would have had another return TD in the fourth, but an illegal block brought his big gain back to the Badgers end.
Seafoot has one regular season game remaining before playoffs, when he knows an undisciplined game gives him no chance at beating the defending Mountainview Football Conference champion Innisfail Cyclones (3-0).
“We simply won’t win with this amount of penalties.”
As a new wrinkle to the MVFC schedule this year, the Badgers will conclude their regular season against the Didsbury Dragons (2-1) Oct. 7 at the home of the Calgary Stampeders, McMahon Stadium.
“The kids love playing there. That’s the whole reason we go, to give them a chance to play on that field,” said Seafoot. “It’ll be my first time coaching there. I’ve taken in many games from the stands and I played there with St. Mary’s against the (University of Calgary) Dinos before. But it’ll be a real treat for the kids.”
Before the senior crew took over the field, the bantam Badgers were involved in a blowout of a different variety Sept. 30 at CMJHS Field.
They were on the wrong side of a 72-6 shellacking from at hands of the Lacombe Raiders.
The Raiders (4-0) were simply bigger, stronger, faster and rolled with a deeper roster than the hometown crew.
Tanner Park took a handoff and sped 62 yards to the house 1:15 into the first quarter, for one of his five touchdowns on the afternoon. His yardage alone on scoring plays totaled 240 yards. He also tacked on six two-point converts to boot.
Cody Melnychuk chipped in with three touchdowns and Zach Rivers hauled in a 28-yard touchdown reception to complete the scoring for the Raiders.
The Badgers (0-3) won the fourth quarter 6-0, when Riley Heysa peeled off a 51-yard run to pay dirt.
The Badgers will look to right the ship in the Central Football League when they host the Innisfail Cyclones (0-2) Oct. 7 at 1:30 p.m.
For the peewee Badgers, it was their second-straight road game and their second-straight victory.
The defending Central Peewee Football League champion Badgers blanked the 1-2 Red Deer Steelers 18-0, improving to 3-0 at the halfway mark of their season.
Next up is a battle with the Innisfail Cyclones (1-2) Oct. 7 at CMJHS Field. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m.