Some hunters helped slew the buffalos at an Okotoks football field on the weekend.
The Foothills Falcons beat the Brooks Buffalos 33-13 in high school football action Friday night at Falcons Field.
Falcons head coach Greg McLeod said it’s good to open the season with a win, but there’s plenty of room for improvement.
“It was rough, there is a lot of things we have to work on,” McLeod said. “That might be a product of just having one week of practice.”
McLeod said Brooks played tough especially since they dressed 18 players.
However, there were three hunters who led the charge in the victory for the Falcons, returning slotback Jake Hunter, and first-year Falcons Hunter Karl and Matthew Hunter.
But it took a while.
Brooks jumped out to an early 7-0 lead when Buffalo quarterback Thomas Le hit slotback Musa Kamara with a 55-yard catch-and-run play late in the first quarter.
Brooks’ lead was short-lived, despite the Falcons being deep in Buffalo territory on their next drive.
The Falcons were penned in on their own 10-yard line, but burst out when quarterback Taylor Armsworthy hit receiver Jake “Tulsa” Hunter over the middle at the 30-yard line. Hunter then turned it up field and didn’t stop until he crossed the Buffalos’ goal line.
“We noticed their safety was dropping over and we had a clean seam up the middle,” Hunter said. “Taylor hit me and I just broke up.”
The Falcons took the lead for good on the next drive when they marched down the field and Armsworthy capped it off when he ran it in from five yards out into the end zone to make it 14-7.
The Falcons added three more points when Foothills linebacker Cody Thompson hit Le and forced a fumble, which was pounced on by Foothills near midfield.
Foothills moved down the field and took a 17-7 lead when Armsworthy kicked a 12-yard field goal with about a minute left in the first half. The field goal was set up by an Armsworthy pass to the speedy Rory Forrester who made a catch in traffic to put the ball on the Buffalos’ nine-yard line.
The Buffalos decided not to run out the clock on their final drive of the half. That’s when midnight struck on the Cinderella Brooks’ team.
The Falcons were able to flush out Le from the pocket and the scrambling quarterback put up an errant pass which was picked off by Foothills cornerback Hunter Karl who took it to the house from 37-yards out to make it 24-7 at halftime.
It all kind of took the first year Falcon by surprise.
“I was talking to our coach on the sideline and he told me to move up and stick with the receiver,” Karl said. “I looked up and the ball was there and I was able to take it in.”
Karl was playing his first game as a Falcon after transferring from Chestermere High School last year. His older brothers Devin and Kyle were standout Falcons.
Armsworthy would up their lead to 25-7 on a rouge with a 63-yard punt which was downed in Brooks’ end zone in the third quarter.
The Falcons would close out the scoring when Armsworthy bootlegged and dived into the corner of the end zone to make it 32-7. The Falcons made the two-point conversion when Karl picked up a botched snap and ran into our end zone.
Brooks would add a late unconverted touchdown to make the final 33-13.
Foothills was able to go their bench liberally in the exhibition game.
McLeod was impressed with the play of middle linebacker Matthew Hunter, who was a powerback with the Bantam Eagles last year.
“He played a significant portion of the game,” McLeod said. “He has only been a MAC (middle linebacker) for a week but he played really well. He’s a short, stocky guy who can carry a load.”
McLeod admits there is some summer rust on his team. He said the offensive line did not play up to his expectations.
“They didn’t play up to their potential,” McLeod said. “They weren’t getting off the ball well.”
He said as a result, the Falcons had trouble moving the ball on the ground.
The Falcons also made some mental mistakes ranging from not being ready to get on the field to offside penalties.
“The effort was there, but we did have some poor execution,” McLeod said. “That might be a by-product of the number of Grade 10 players, but there is no excuse for not being ready to go out on special teams.”
McLeod said some of the mistakes were caused by the strong effort of the Buffalos who played tough despite dressing only 18 players.
Buffalos coach Paul Coshato was delighted with his team’s play.
“Some of our guys had never played a down of football until today,” Coshato said. “We have some strong players who played with a lot of pride we will get stronger when we get some more bodies.
“We had some turnovers that killed some drives and some big plays on their part, but I thought at times we were pretty evenly matched.”
The Falcons won’t be facing an 18-man roster this week.
They host the defending Tier I provincial champions Harry Ainlay Titans from Edmonton, next Friday.
“They have a phenomenal program and they are going to be very good,” McLeod said. “We want to play the best. We don’t want a false sense of where we are at and we don’t want a false sense of what the very best is.”
The kick-off is at 7:30 p.m. at Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks.
