The Edwin Parr Composite High School Pacers obliterated the opposing football team, Vegreville Vortex, last Friday in a home game — the Pacers’ first in the regular season.
The Pacers won 56-0.
“Everything went really well for us,” said Pacers head coach Pete Burden. “We started the game: the first play we went for a touchdown, so it set the tone right away.”
Burden said they did everything they could to keep the score as low as possible, with the exception of asking the players to dial back their efforts.
“You can’t ever ask a kid not to play 100 per cent,” said Burden.
“Our starting quarterback and running backs didn’t even play ‘til the end of the first quarter,” he pointed out. “Unfortunately, it was a blow out. We don’t like to do that to any team.”
Burden said all his Grade 10 and 11 students played for most of the game.
“Scoring-wise, other than my quarterback scoring three touchdowns, it was all scored by Grade 10s or 11s or players who have not played at the offensive position before,” he said. “We have so many Grade 12s right now that it is very difficult (to keep the score down). We have 14 Grade 12s out of 25 players.”
Burden said he was expecting the opposing team to be more powerful than it was.
“They are a very young team, and we are a very mature team, so we had the advantage there,” he said.
Burden said everything that happened on the field was to the Pacers’ benefit.
“There were plays that were not supposed to go the way they did, but they just worked,” he said. “We got all the bounces our way. It was just one of those nights: anything we wanted to do just worked out for us.”
Burden knows their luck might not carry over to future games.
“It was just that kind of night where they would fumble the ball, and it would fall right into our hands,” he explained.
Burden feels it is necessary to allow all players who attend practice get to play in the game.
“Our young kids played an awful lot,” he said. “That is really good, because we had a Grade 10 quarterback and two Grade 10 running backs who played three-quarters of the game.
“They did a very good job at it,” he added.
The Pacers’ next game is Sept. 13 in Vermilion.
Burden said the Pacers won the championship in Vermilion last year.
“I don’t think they were very happy about that. I think they want to get a little revenge on us,” he said. “We need to play at the top of our game.”
