They needed a spark and boy did they get one.
The Foothills Falcons scored 17 unanswered points in the second half and clinched a 17-14 victory on a Seth Nelson field goal in the final 10 seconds to outlast the Hunting Hills Lightning and pick up their first win in three tries in high school football action Friday at Falcons field.
“At halftime, coach (Darren Olson) gave us a huge talk about turning our season around and what’s the turning point and I guess we did it,” Nelson said. “Our morale was getting a little low, some fighting, but it feels good to get the win.
“This builds our confidence a little bit. We can’t get too big headed, it’s just one game.”
It’s one game the athletes and spectators alike won’t soon forget.
Dogged by dropped balls, missed opportunities and a lack of discipline, the Falcons dug themselves an early hole against the number-two ranked Tier II squad in the province.
The opening quarters saw the Foothills defence force turnovers only to see its offence stymied in two-and-out situations. A fumble recovery from Grade 10 lineman Jake Tighe and interception from Nelson yielded just a pair of punts in the first quarter. Hunting Hills took a 7-0 advantage into the break on the final play from scrimmage in the half when elusive quarterback Eric Thomson rolled out of the pocket and found a wide-open Nathan Lavigne in the end-zone on a 15-yard connection.
Lightning struck twice shortly after the restart. The Red Deer school doubled its lead on its opening drive when Thomson hit pay-dirt on first-and-goal.
On the next possession, the Falcons offence found its form.
First, quarterback Tyson Pitcher found Urijah Schiffner, who’s becoming a big player receiver for the Comp, for a 20-yard catch in traffic to start the drive. Consecutive quick hits to Payton Price and Keaton Neish and a grinding run from Payton Burbank got the Falcons in the red-zone. Following a defensive pass interference call, the Falcons quarterback bulldozed into the end-zone on first-and-goal.
“I don’t think there was a whole lot of adjustments. The biggest adjustment was our guys decided they weren’t going to play sub-par,” said Falcons head coach Darren Olson. “We’ve got young kids, but we have a lot of skill guys and we have to make sure we apply what we practice during the week at game time.”
The Falcons defence then made sure to get the ball back to its offence as quickly and often as possible. Fumble recoveries on consecutive defensive plays put the Comp offence in striking distance. From there some creative play calling had the hosts back even. Pitcher faked a hand off in the backfield and turned on the jets, ran it up the gut and rammed in for a 10 yard touchdown with 4:30 remaining in the tilt.
“You can feel it on the bench sometimes, you can feel the guys confidence is up there,” the coach added. “When you start making plays, you can feel things are changing. The way we’re tackling, the way the other team is running. (Momentum) made a big difference for us.”
Momentum firmly on their side, the Falcons defence had the Lightning taking a step back, forcing them to punt out of bad field positions.
Nelson’s first chance to kick the Falcons to their first lead of the game went awry when his attempted punt to the back of the end-zone fell a few yards short. As is often the case, opportunity knocked a second time for the Grade 11 standout. This time there would be no miss. Nelson stepped up and delivered a 32 yard no-doubter field goal with 9.4 seconds on the clock.
“It felt good to get the field goal to make up for that,” Nelson said. “I was really nervous. I’ve been having real trouble with field goals in practice. Getting that kick, as soon as I hit it I knew it was going to be good.”
Hunting Hills had one last shot to get back in it. Thomson’s Hail Mary pass on the final play from scrimmage fell into the arms of Nelson. The talented defensive back then turned it up field and rammed his way into a sea of Lightning would be tacklers to put an exclamation point on the victory.
“He’s a money guy. When it really counts (Nelson) is going to make the big play,” Olson said. “He makes a pick on the last play and instead of running it out of bounds, he runs over their guy.
“That’s the kind of competitor he is and you need guys like that on your team.”
The Falcons are off next week for a bye. They return to the gridiron on Sept. 30 in a Big Rock Football battle with the Highwood Mustangs in High River.
