A pair of touchdowns was a breakthrough for team that has seen a huge turnover in personnel from last season.
That was one of the bright spots as the Athabasca Pacers fell 49-12 to the Wainwright Commandos in their regular season and home opener last Friday at EPC Field.
“There were a lot of positives. Our biggest rusher wasn’t our quarterback for once and our offensive line was better,” said Pacers head coach Pete Burden.
As a team, the Pacers rushed for around 120 yards and accumulated just over 200 yards through the air.
That output, along with putting some points on the board, is something Burden was very pleased with considering he had to revamp his offensive scheme last week.
“We had to start our regular fullback on the already all-rookie offensive line due to an injury and just missed connecting on a few more plays,” he said.
“So we are going in the right direction. When we get back to our starting o-line and backfield, things are going to get much better.”
Getting more improvements on the other side means going back and building on the fundamentals
“The problem we had was when we made a mistake on defense, we would give up a big play that led to most of their touchdowns,” Burden explained.
“They gave them big holes to run through. Our guys are young and taking two steps forward then one back. It’s just going to take longer.”
The first quarter was a struggle on both sides of the ball for the Pacers, with the offense unable to move the ball much and the defense giving up an early touchdown.
Things improved a bit in the second quarter with Rene Desjardins hauling in a deep ball from quarterback Justin Kwasney for a 60-yard pass and run touchdown with only seconds remaining in the first half.
The two-point convert was unsuccessful.
Unfortunately, the Commandos were able to take advantage of a young Pacers defense earlier in the quarter to notch a pair of touchdowns to talk a 21-7 lead into half time.
In the second half, the struggles on defence continued with the Commandos adding a TD early.
The Commandos defense put some points on the board in the third as well, taking an interception 45 yards for the major score.
However, the Pacers replied a short time later with Desjardins finding some open field on a screen pass and rambling 50 yards for his second TD of the game. Again, the Pacers try for two points was not successful.
Wainwright put two more touchdowns on the board to close things out against what was clearly a very tired Pacers defense.
Tough contest up next
Being able to improve and gain some confidence is going to be a hard task when the Pacers take on the division one Cold Lake Royals this Friday in an exhibition game at EPC Field (kick-off at 5 p.m.).
“It’s definitely a game we are going to use to work on things on both sides of the ball,” said Burden.
“We’ll use this week of practice a as chance to build on the basics and go from there.
“It’s been hard having players needing to re-learn new positions each week for various reasons. We knew September wasn’t going to be our month, but our goal is still the same – improve through October, make the playoffs and get on a run to the championship in November.”
