The Westlock Thunderbirds now sit with a 1-3 record in the Wheatland Football League after a 35-7 home-turf loss to the Athabasca Pacers last Friday night.
Despite the loss, however, head coach Jon Kramer said the team showed some great development and played some excellent football.
“It’s probably the best game that we’ve had,” he said. “It’s still a loss but it was a much better team effort — and even individual effort and execution — than week two when we won.
“We knew our playoff fate was kind of determined after losing to Athabasca and Vermilion, so we’ve just looked at the season like we’re on a journey. We’re aiming to improve each week leading up into the playoffs.”
The first quarter proved to be the most trouble for the T-Birds, who struggled to maintain control of the ball and gave up three touchdowns to give them a 19-0 deficit going into the second.
That second quarter proved to be a big turning point for Westlock, with the defensive line tightening up and shutting down the Pacers’ offence. The T-Birds offence, despite some great plays, couldn’t put together enough yards to find the end zone so the score remained 19-0.
In the second half, Westlock’s offence opened up, with a recovery of an on-side kickoff attempt leaving them attacking from the Pacers’ half of the field. An unnecessary roughness penalty followed by an objectionable conduct penalty put the T-Birds 25 yards closer, and Jesse Plamondon found his way into the end zone with an impressive running play, putting the Thunderbirds on the board.
The Pacers then spent most of that quarter marching the ball up the field a few yards at a time, ultimately finding their way past the goal line. A failed conversion attempted held them to six points in the quarter, however.
Another touchdown and a successful field goal in the fourth quarter put the Pacers up to the 35-7 lead they ended the game with.
After tying one quarter and winning another, the Thunderbirds had little reason to be disappointed with their performance against the Pacers, who have a very experienced team this year and are hungry for revenge after several years of struggling against the Thunderbirds.
“They’re a hungry team. Even if they’re up by 30, the scoreboard doesn’t matter,” Kramer said. “The whole game, they were playing full out every play. We’ve got a lot of respect for them.”
With many forced turnovers and a pretty strong defence, Kramer said the Thunderbirds are showing some impressive improvement — not the least of which is in the attitude and effort they put forward right until the very end.
“It was just the effort that went into it,” he said. “Even down to the last play — when we knew the game was done and they were running the ball right down in their end zone, the guys were still breaking through the line and fighting to be the one who made the play.”
That effort will serve the T-Birds well this week as they head to Vegreville to take on the Vortex, before returning for an Oct. 12 home game against the Vermilion Marauders.
