The Edwin Parr Composite (EPC) Pacers football team won 37-7 against the Vermilion Tanagers during a home game last Friday.
The Pacers usually sport a green and white uniform; however, their last game was quite colourful.
October is breast cancer awareness month, and Pacers coach Pete Burden said the team will be wearing pink for the next month.
As for Friday’s game, the team had a slow start. The score was 14-0 at half time, when Burden said the team pulled their socks up and scored more points.
“Unfortunately, they had a short bench with 19 players, so they tired out in the second half,” Burden said of the Tanagers.
“Vermilion has improved quite a bit since we played them the first time. They just didn’t have the numbers yesterday,” Burden said.
Vermilion’s flagging energy allowed the Pacers to mix things up.
“We tried two different defences,” he said. “We have been working on a different defence to try in the playoffs. It seemed to work quite well for us.”
Burden said all his players had a chance to play during Friday’s game.
“We were able to get our offensive linemen to carry the ball, which we were able to do because we were ahead,” Burden said. “Four of our offensive linemen turned into running backs for a while.”
Josh Smith, Bryan Weymouth, Jesse Willcott and Nick Reid were all given a chance to run the ball, and two of them even scored touchdowns.
Burden explained that on Oct. 10, the team will salute the senior players because it is the team’s last regular season home game.
“This week is all about our graduating Grade 12 players,” he said. “Once the game is over, we will have a little speech for every player that is graduating.”
Burden said he would like to see as many fans as possible supporting the team this Thursday.
“A lot of these kids have been in the program for five years, and it is our way of saying thanks to them,” he said. “It is very difficult to say goodbye to some of these young boys.”
Burden said the team will battle Westlock for first place at the Oct. 10 game heading into the Wheatland Football League playoffs. The game starts at 4 p.m. at EPC.
