Less was more for the Foothills Falcons in the Big Rock Football Conference first-place tilt.
The Falcons erased a three-point halftime deficit and scored 21 unanswered to knock off the pesky Rundle College Cobras 35-17 Friday night in Calgary and locked up a bye through to the Big Rock championship game.
“We were trying to do too much. Defensively we weren’t making the adjustments we had been working on all week and we put in a few things we hadn’t done all year,” said Falcons head coach Darren Olson. “Their quarterback (Sebastian Britton) is really strong, threw the ball really well.
“We went back to what we’ve been doing all year in the second half. The guys adjusted and did a good job with it.”
Foothills, the No. 3 ranked Tier II team in the province, wrestled momentum back early in the second-half when defensive captain Gavin Millard wrestled Britton to the ground on a massive sack to force a turnover on downs.
“That turnover with Gavin was a big play,” Olson said. “That’s when we’re at our best when we try to do what we’re supposed to do and try not to do everybody else’s job.”
Two plays later the Falcons were in the lead and didn’t look back.
Quarterback Trey Kellogg found slotback Brendan Lowry alone in the flats for a 30-yard gain. Runningback Landon Rose, sidelined for parts of the contest with illness, got back on the field and burst up the gut for a 26 yard-major to get the visitors back in front.
The Falcons went up by 11 points early in the fourth quarter on a perfectly executed play-action bootleg.
Kellogg fooled everyone on the field, in the stands and a few on the sidelines with a fake handoff to Rose before cutting to the right sideline and galloping his way into the end-zone capped by a brilliant spin-move on a 30-yard backbreaking touchdown.
“We saw they play a little bit narrow and bite a little bit sometimes so first-half we baited them and got them to get accustomed to that,” Kellogg said. “As soon as we saw them start to bite in we saw it was opening up good lanes.”
The bootleg touchdown was a longtime coming.
“Coach Jeff (Balzer) always bugs me that I need to work on it,” Kellogg said. “Keaton Goosen made a really nice block on that end and then Peter Baker made a great block to make it really easy for me to get in there. There was just one guy I had to beat.”
The Falcons quarterback showcased his skills on defence to set up Foothills’ fifth and final major. Playing at defensive back, Kellogg picked off his opposite number on a Hail Mary and nearly returned it to the house. Rose then put an exclamation point on the victory when he went in untouched from 15 yards out to complete the 35-point scoreline.
“The second half, once we started getting some stops, putting up that one touchdown we started getting momentum back,” Kellogg said. “Once we started making plays, getting the intensity up everybody started rolling and it led to better things.”
Foothills, nursing a few injuries in the defensive ranks, now gets the week off to prepare for the second Big Rock finalists as it bids for a third straight league championship. The semifinal will pit the Cobras and Holy Trinity Academy Knights on Oct. 23 in the Stampede City.
“Especially with these two good teams it’s good for us to sit back, watch who gets the win,” the Grade 12 quarterback added.
“It gives us two weeks to plan and see what we need to do to exploit them.”
