ESTEVAN — The Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs football team began their season Friday night with a 43-0 loss to the Weyburn Comprehensive School Eagles.
Despite the result, Elecs coach Mark Schott still found some positives from the game that was played at the Dana Quewezance Memorial Field at the Woodlawn Athletic Park.
Estevan trailed 25-0 after the first quarter and 43-0 at halftime, and then gave up just one point in the second half.
ECS had a couple of good kickoff returns, Schott said, and running back Khalifa Elshein finished with 81 yards on 18 carries. Dorian Sifton had some nice rushes while playing quarterback.
"We moved the ball decently between the 30s. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get much further than that and get some points," said Schott.
The defence settled down after the large early deficit and managed to make some good plays, too.
Schott said the start was definitely a disappointment, and Weyburn has a lot of speed in their receiving corps and capitalized on it with some big plays.
Estevan also committed five turnovers.
The Elecs next game will be Sept. 15 when they visit the Yorkton Regional High School Raider Gridders. Schott noted Yorkton is another perennial top team in the province.
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The Estevan Kinette Club U18 Viragos dropped their first game of the season 51-0 to the Melville Vipers on Saturday at Woodlawn.
Estevan was down 32-0 at halftime. Coach Mark Tribiger said they came out flat in the first half but started to play better in the final two quarters.
Morgan Hayes had a couple of good runs that pushed the Viragos close to the end zone, he said. Quarterback Sarah Greening didn't back down despite taking a few hits. Ava Salminen was outstanding on defence and teamed up with Hailey Tangjerd to lead the defensive unit.
The Viragos were short on players until last Wednesday. They weren't sure if they would have enough athletes to play on Saturday, but they had a late influx of talent. It meant some of the team members only had a couple of practices under their belt for the Melville game.
"The girls just rallied, and I feel like they pretty much asked every girl in the school, once school started, to come out and play so we could have a team," said Tribiger.
The Viragos have 17 players, but five of them are new.
Their next game is Sept. 16 in Moosomin.
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The Estevan Lions Club U14 Oilers opened their season with a 38-22 defeat against the Moose Jaw Raiders Saturday at Woodlawn in their opening game of the season.
"It was a fun game to play," said coach Paul Duncan. "There was lots of hard hitting, exciting plays that happened in it on both sides. I was really happy to see that with everybody."
Hugh Ross scored two touchdowns, one receiving and one on a kick return, and Caleb Crossman had a receiving touchdown.
"I thought we were able to attack them through the air, just to keep the defence on their heels a little bit, and our run game did well with a brand new offensive line. The guys up front gave us a good push. Lots of positives from that offensive line to build on going into the future with them," said Duncan.
Running back Taya Stigings fought through some tackles to have a good game.
The defence was "lights out" in the second half, Duncan said, and forced four turnovers.
Estevan had 22 players for Saturday's game. Nine of them, including four offensive linemen, were in their first game ever.
The Oilers will continue to accept players for the next week. They will be adding a couple more players to the team, but they could use a few more.
"I think football's a great sport for everybody to be involved with," said Duncan.
Duncan said it was nice to get some points after last season when the U14s didn't get a touchdown. It was particularly good for those who were back from last year's team.
The Oilers and the U12 Chargers are back in the Moose Jaw Minor Football League this year. Brandt Truck & Trailer Estevan Minor Football announced earlier this year it would be shifting to the Qu'Appelle Valley League for this season, but ultimately had to return to the Moose Jaw loop.
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The Estevan Coldwell Banker Choice Real Estate U12 Chargers fell 32-0 to the Swift Current Steelers Saturday in Swift Current.
Coach James Haagsman said they played well defensively. Max Ogbanskiy and Colton Juneau had interceptions on the day.
Haagsman noted that most of the team's returning players are on defence, and they have largely rookie players on offence, so they're trying to teach the offensive players. Their most experienced player on offence is quarterback Cyrus Schell.
"He's our anchor on offence. We're pretty stout on defence. We gave up most of our points on turnovers from the offence, so our defence really held us in the game for most of the game."
Estevan was down 7-0 at halftime.
The game marked the first time that most of the kids had been in a full-contact game, as they had been scrimmaging before Saturday. They will increase the physicality at practice.
The Chargers have 25 players and Haagsman is pleased with the numbers, but he would accept more.
Estevan's next game is Sept. 16 at the Moose Jaw Spartans.
