The Oilfields Drillers are showing the drive to play in the Big Sky Boys High School Rugby Union, however, they had too many young drivers in their 28-19 loss to the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartans on May 10.
“We were missing a few key players, Brent Arkes, our Grade 11 player, and Brent Jardie and those are two of our hefty props,” said Drillers coach Aaron Langstraat. “We had two smaller kids, Justin Jones and Ben Thorkelson, who was in there today and they played well… We were also missing some players because of driver’s education.”
However, Langstraat wasn’t making any excuses, he said they were beaten by a good Strathcona-Tweedsmuir Spartan (STS) team.
“STS is second in Division II (in the Big Sky) and they are very smart team that moves the ball really well,” Langstraat said.
He added the Spartans were also sportsmanlike, willing to play 13-man rugby rather than 15s because the Drillers were missing some players to other commitments.
STS opened the scoring when they were able to bulldoze their way into the try zone to make it 7-0 early in the first half.
They increased their lead immediately when they took the ensuing punt from Oilfields and the Spartans were able to put the ball into the tryzone from 90 yards out for a try to up their lead to 14-0.
They rounded out the first half scoring when Spartan Ben Pluck ran laterally across the field before cutting into the try zone from 10 yards out to take a 21-0 lead.
STS put the game away at 28-0 on a try by Chase Van Sant approximately 10 minutes in the second half.
However, then the Drillers’ pride started digging deep.
Oilfields cut the lead to 21-7 after being awarded a penalty try (a try is given when one would have likely been scored if not for a foul by the defending team).
The Drillers closed the gap to 21-12 when Cole Ouellette was able to work his way into the try zone (the convert was missed).
They closed out the scoring on a spectacular run by Grade 12 student Calvin Creighton, who picked up a loose ball and outran the Spartans for a 75-yard try to make the final 28-19.
“He just hit an open space and ran — that must of come from when he played Drillers’ football in Grade 9,” Langstraat said.
Pluck, a DeWinton resident, said it took a while for the team to adjust to play 13-man rugby.
“We are a very organized team and our schemes call for 15-men, so we had to acclimatize to that,” Pluck said. “In the second half we had mistakes in communication.”
The victory improved the Spartans record to 3-1 among the Tier II schools in the league. Their lone loss was to the first-place Banff Bears early in the season.
“A lot of us hadn’t played before, the communication on our team is so much better now,” said Pluck, adding he hopes the Spartans get a chance to meet the Bears in the playoffs.
Langstraat said he was pleased with his team’s performance.
“I’m trying to build perseverance and community in rugby which to me is the most important part of the game,” Langstraat said. “It is such a long game with no interruptions that if you get down early, there is no way to stop and reset things.
“The kids just kept working and working and working.”
Driller Ben Thorkelson said they will learn from the loss.
“I thought we had a solid game with a lot of long runs,” he said. “We knew STS had a very good team and I thought we played really hard and didn’t give up in the second half. We didn’t quit.”
The Spartans are at Chestermere on May 17 to play the Lakers. The Drillers will have their work cut out for them as they are at Holy Trinity Academy in Okotoks on May 17 at 6:30 p.m.
The Knights won by default last week against Chestermere.
Falcons win
The Foothills Falcons improved to 3-1 with a 17-12 victory over the Cochrane Cobras on May 10 in Cochrane. Jamie Irving had a pair of trys and Richard Kulhanek had the other for Foothills.
Thomas Kurth was able to convert one kick in tough winds.
“Jamie Irving had a solid game with numerous carries,” Falcons coach Steve Wager said. “He drove hard up the middle for his first try. His second came from an eight man pick and he rambled in for the score.”
Wager said there is still plenty of room for improvement.
“We will continue to work on the fundamentals this week.” Wager said. “We are improving as a team, but we have to support the play and the players around us.”
The Falcons play the Springbank Phoenix next week in Cochrane.
