It is always a good thing to head into football’s post-season with a positive feeling and the Athabasca Pacers are doing just that.
The Pacers travelled to High Prairie last Friday for an exhibition game and came away with a 35-14 win, their first of this season.
And while head coach Pete Burden knows the victory came at the hands of a program that is in its first year and isn’t in a league yet, it’s great to have his team feeling good about itself.
“We needed something positive to come out of this week before heading into the playoffs. Thing ran right for use and hopefully we can carry that forward and build on the positives,” Burden explained.
“It didn’t matter (High Prairie) is just getting off the ground. They have some good athletes and the only difference is we have a couple of veteran players whereas they have a lot more players than we do.
“We simply needed to get our offence established and have our guys on both sides of the ball finally understand that they need to make the right reads and play their position.”
For the most part that did occur for the Pacers in High Prairie, with the exception of the start of the second half.
Down 14-0, High Prairie returned the kickoff for a touchdown and then, after forcing the Pacers to punt on their first possession of the third quarter, scored another major on an 80-yard reverse.
“It was the same thing that has hurt us all season, giving up the big play simply because someone wasn’t staying in their position and doing their job,” Burden said.
“So, there were some very loud words expressed before that next kickoff and the boys picked thing up from that point on.”
The Pacers are in Wainwright on Saturday (kickoff 1 p.m.) for the Wheatland division II quarterfinal where Burden hopes the confidence the team has gained will translate into another victory.
“I think the lights have turned on now,” he said.
“I hope the extra day of practice we have will help our offence learn a bit more and give our defence more time to improve their tackling.”
