They simply ran out of gas.
After briefly being ahead of the Westlock Thunderbirds football team before half, the Athabasca Pacers finished off their first game of the season at home Sept. 8 with a score of 48-22.
Athabasca had 16 players to Westlock’s 34, and Pacers head coach Pete Burden said if his team had been up four or five players, they would have beat Westlock.
“Once we got tired we started making mistakes and giving up some big plays,” Burden said. “We ran out of gas. We just didn’t have enough bodies. They’re a big team with lots of numbers, and they just started over powering us.”
After the final whistle, Burden said to his kids in a huddle to “be proud of what you all did tonight. Nobody hang your heads.”
Indeed, the Pacers were right in the game up until the second half, with a score of 14-12. The T-Birds took off from there, eventually reaching 48 points. The Pacers got one last touchdown with six minutes left on the clock, and Burden said the Pacers played right until the end.
“We got down by 21 points (and) they could’ve quit easily. Nobody quit; we played right until the last whistle and we were still trying to score points during the last play of the game,” Burden said. “A lot of kids won’t do that. They’ll hang their heads. I was extremely impressed. We just didn’t give up.”
Top scorers for the Pacers were Nathaneal Borys, Will Fox and Ryelee Buchanan, who got 12, six and four points each.
Burden said while the T-Birds suffered a few casualties, all 16 Pacers players stuck in the game.
In the game’s first quarter, an ambulance was called for Westlock player Patrick Skuban, who suffered a broken leg.
“They had a lot of injuries and casualties. We hit hard; we play extremely physical and we play right to the end. I couldn’t be any prouder of those guys out there,” Burden said.
The Pacers had a tough decision to make after the game, whether to keep the program running or to kibosh it this year due to a low number of players. After the game, Burden put it to a vote. The team unanimously decided to keep the program.
While three players dropped out shortly before the game against Westlock, Burden said there should be a couple of new players joining the team this week.
Burden said the decision to keep the program running was against what Burden thought was best.
“The way I look at it, with 16, it’s so difficult for them. I’m not the one getting beat up. They’re the ones out there so they need to make the decision,” he said. “If we get up to 20 we’ll be OK.”
