A 30-0 victory over the Vegreville Vortex brought the regular season to a triumphant close for the Athabasca Pacers last weekend.
Edwin Parr Composite’s football team was on the road for the game last Saturday, their last of the regular season. The contest meant little in the standings, as the Pacers were locked into third place in the division regardless of the outcome.
But they still wanted to produce a strong effort to gain some momentum heading into the playoffs, and they did just that.
The Pacers scored most of their points in the second half. They only scored one in the first quarter and nine more in the second, but the offense stopped sputtering and started firing in the third and fourth quarters.
Pacers coach Pete Burden tried to spread the playing time around in order to rest some of his top players. Three quarterbacks saw action in the game; Gaetano Minto had four completions on 13 attempts for 131 yards and one touchdown, Michael Pieroway had five completions on seven attempts for 63 yards and one interception, and Randall Weber had three completions on four attempts for 48 yards.
Jeremy Major led the way for the running game with four rushes for 66 yards and a touchdown. He also had a “monster game” on defense with 13 tackles, two quarterback sacks, a blocked kick and a safety touch.
Minto ran for five rushes and 61 yards, and Mitchell Snow had five rushes for 39 yards.
In total, seven Pacers ran the ball during the game.
Though the score was lopsided, Burden was a little disappointed that his team didn’t put up more than 30 points given they had over 400 yards on offense.
“We can’t keep turning the ball over. We have to correct that,” he said. On the team’s first drive they fumbled in the red zone, but the coach conceded that weather was a factor as the team was running into a stiff breeze in the first quarter.
“Once we had the wind at our back, it changed everything around.”
The team has a trio of league leaders in the stats categories. Major had the most tackles in the league while Minto led in passing yards and Braden Anderson led in receiving yards.
The team will travel to Westlock for a playoff game this Saturday at 1 p.m.
Each team owns a win over the other this season, and each would like nothing more than to knock the other out.
“If we’re ready to go, we can play with any team.”
