After being routed by one of the elite high school teams in the province, the Foothills Falcons football squad is hoping to take lessons from their disappointing trip to Alberta’s capital city.
The Foothills Composite Falcons lost for the first time during the exhibition season in convincing fashion, dropping a 47-6 decision to the Austin O’Brien Crusaders, Sept. 2 in Edmonton.
“It was a tough one,” Foothills head coach Greg McLeod said. “They’re a very good, physical team.”
Devan Karl scored a touchdown on a sweep play and was the only Falcon to hit pay dirt for Foothills in a resounding road loss for the Okotoks school.
The Falcons had a promising first quarter before things fell apart for the team.
“We came out really well, we were battling back and forth and we were moving the ball really well offensively in the first quarter,” McLeod said.
“We got it down to their five-yard line and didn’t convert on third down and they came back to score a quick one on us and it just snowballed from there,” McLeod said.
Foothills defensive back Dallas Toso said the Falcons were unable to recuperate when things weren’t going their way.
“We held them in the first quarter. On defence we held them to two and outs and we were moving the ball on offence,” Toso said. “They got a big play on us and we just didn’t recover.”
Falcons wide receiver Thomas Kurth said, “After the first couple of plays it was hard to keep our heads up because things were just not going our way.”
“They were just bigger, faster and stronger than us.”
The Falcons were down 19-0 at half, and made things worse on themselves in the final two quarters by allowing the Crusaders to score points on defence and on special teams.
Austin O’Brien scooped up a fumble off a bobbled snap by the Falcons on their own 20-yard line and ran it in for the score. The Crusaders also scored a touchdown on a punt return in the second half.
McLeod said quarterback Taylor Armsworthy played most of the game for the Falcons but had to be subbed off on a couple occasions after taking hard hits from the Crusaders rushers.
McLeod said his team needs to take the loss as a learning experience.
“We’re going to come back have a better week and we can grow from it.”
McLeod said with the youth and inexperience on his roster there’s bound to be some growing pains.
“We’re young, we’re still working through a lot of things… and it’s going to take some time to get where we want to be.”
“Our line on both sides of the ball needs to be better, that’s really where we’re the youngest. It’s going to take some time for those guys to gel as a unit.”
McLeod said his team now has a barometer of what it takes to be a great team at the Tier II level.
“That’s where the elite in the North are and that’s what we’re striving to get to in the next few months,” he said.
“They set the bar for winning provincials,” Toso said. “Because that’s probably the team we’ll have to beat to get there.”
Toso, a Grade 12 student, remembers his provincial championship season with the Falcons from two years ago starting in a similar fashion.
We lost to (Austen O’Brien) early in the year and went on to win provincials, so it’s kind of a repeat of that.”
The Falcons would be well served to not replicate their performance in their next tilt in which Foothills hosts Edmonton’s Harry Ainlay Titans on Sept. 9 at the Foothills Composite field.
The Titans are one of the top Tier I teams in the province.
