The Foothills Falcons suffered a first against an Edmonton school with a rebellious spirit.
On the heels of three weeks of dominant victories, outscoring their opponents by a 134-24 margin, the Falcons (3-1) dropped their first game of the season 20-0 in Edmonton to the Jasper Place Rebels.
“Jasper Place is a really good team and they were far and away the most physical team we’ve played this year,” said Falcons head coach Greg McLeod. “It was good for our guys to get into a game like that where they can see the physicality they’re going to have to play with in order to compete with the best in the province.”
Jasper Place set the tone seconds after the coin flip, scoring on the opening drive and using their ground game to build a 20-point lead at halftime.
“We really played poorly to put in mildly in the first (half),” McLeod said. “It was a pretty abysmal performance, we came out flat offensively and just didn’t look like we were ready to play the game in the first half for whatever reason.
“We left the locker room to the guys at halftime and I’m not sure what was done or said by players, but they certainly came out and played much better in the second half.”
The Rebels had a cause against the Falcons, chiefly to put pressure on Falcons quarterback Taylor Armsworthy with a ferocious pass rush.
“They sent their linebackers on us really hard, they blitzed a lot and it was hard for our linemen to be able to pick up their blocks in the first half,” Armsworthy said. “In the second-half my line allowed me more time to be able to throw the ball.”
The Grade 12 quarterback said slow starts have dogged the team all season, but this week they didn’t get away with it.
“We really didn’t come to play in the first half and we’ve kind of had that struggle throughout this entire year,” Armsworthy said. “In order for us to be successful we need to be able to play a full four quarters and get going right from the get go.”
McLeod echoed the sentiment.
“I put it to the guys like it’s not a 12-round boxing match, you don’t have the first couple of rounds to feel your opponent out,” McLeod said. “You do your feeling out during the week watching film and opening kick-off on Friday night has got to be 100 miles per hour going straight ahead.”
However, in keeping the eighth ranked Tier I team off the scoreboard in the final 24 minutes, the Falcons gained some momentum from their performance in the second half.
“This game allows us to be able to know that we can play against anyone that we want to,” Armsworthy said. “We just have to play our game.”
Armsworthy admitted it was discouraging to end up on the wrong end of a Football Alberta scoreboard, but added there’s no time to dwell on defeat.
“It’s just an exhibition game so we’re going to try and take as much away from this loss and do what we can to improve and get ready for this week’s game,” he said.
The Falcons square off with their Okotoks rivals, the fifth-ranked Holy Trinity Academy Knights, for a 7 p.m. kick-off on Friday at the Knights Field in Okotoks.
For more information go to www.footballalberta.ab.ca.
