After a hard-fought battle last Friday, the Westlock Thunderbirds earned a 12-10 victory over the Vermilion Marauders and secured first place in Tier 2 of the Wheatland Football League.
Both teams went into the Sept. 23 game with 2-0 records, having defeated Athabasca and Vegreville. At first it looked like the Marauders might come out on top, but the local boys refocused in the second half to earn the win.
“I was proud of them, and the way they adjusted at half time and came back,” coach Jon Kramer said after the game. “It took a whole half to do it, but they did it.”
The T-Birds ran into some penalty troubles early on, with not one but two potential touchdown plays thwarted by offside calls. Then they punted and forced the Marauders to take a safety touch, but a too-many-player penalty was called on that play.
Westlock lost a bit of steam after that series of unfortunate events, and the Marauders took the opportunity to run a few plays that resulted in a long touchdown run late in the first quarter.
They missed the conversion attempt, leaving the score at 6-0. Early in the second quarter, the Marauders forced the T-Birds back into their own end-zone for a two-point safety touch, leaving a big deficit to make up.
Near the end of the first half, the T-Birds seemed to wake up and start putting some plays together with an impressive march toward the end zone.
With less than one minute left to play, Westlock put together four first downs in a row and with 0.2 seconds left, found themselves six yards away from the touchdown.
The team’s disappointment was apparent after the Marauders shut down the offence and both team retreated to their end zones at half time.
“We refocused at half time and said, you know what? It’s football. Football goes up and down. A team can be up 40 and still find a way to lose,” Kramer said. “If we’ve got 12 guys on the field who are taking responsibility and getting their heads right, we’re going to win football games.”
Stefan Toivonen, a corner back who made some big plays throughout the game, said the pep talk at half time had a lot to do with the renewed vigour the team showed on the field.
“We just talked and got everyone down pat on what to do. We got our heads straight,” he said.
It took a few minutes of play for the T-Birds to get themselves in scoring position, but with about four minutes left wide receiver Jason Moerman caught a touchdown pass and ran the ball into the end zone to put the Birds on the board. A missed conversion attempt left the score at 8-6.
In the fourth quarter as the clock was ticking down, the T-Bird again put together a good offensive push and Toivonen made a big catch followed by a 50-yard run into the end zone to pull the T-Birds to a 12-8 lead.
The Marauders didn’t give up without a fight, though, and were able to force another safety touch before the game was through, making the score 12-10. The T-Birds held on for the win, much to the joy of a jubilant crowd.
“It was fun,” Kramer said. “At the end of the day it was a little stressful, but what a fun way to spend a Friday.”
The T-Birds will be back on the field in Westlock Tuesday afternoon where they will face the Tier 1 Bonnyville Voyageurs in an exhibition game, before they head to Athabasca to face the Pacers again on Friday.
