Those who didn’t know any better might think the Big Rock Bengals dressed two different teams last week.
Such was the contrast in performance as Big Rock saw a six-point lead evaporate and allowed 16 unanswered points in the second half to fall 24-14 to the Airdrie Raiders in Calgary and Area Midget Football Association action on April 21.
“We got beat by depth, for one thing, they had more players,” said Bengals head coach Bruce Marlow. “Nobody was the goat in this game, we had five or six mistakes that significantly changed the game.”
Coming off a lopsided defeat the week prior, the Bengals showed no signs of downward momentum with an auspicious opening quarter.
Grade 11 slotback Blake Klotz broke the scoreless deadlock barely a minute into the contest when he took a fly route to the house from midfield.
Airdrie got on the board with a deep punt forcing Big Rock’s Keaton Neish to take a safety. The Raiders then briefly jumped out in-front again on special teams with a 50-yard punt-return touchdown giving them an 8-6 advantage.
Undaunted, Big Rock ensured it went into the half in-front.
Klotz took over behind centre and on his first-play at quarterback found Grade 10 speedster Adam Dielessen for a 70-yard catch and run in the final minute of the second quarter. On the next play, Klotz connected with Tyson Pitcher for a fade route to the back of the end zone from 20 yards out. The duo would again combine on a nearly identical play to complete the two-point conversion.
“We came out in the first half like last week didn’t even happen. We try to forget about those things,” Marlow said. “We made a difference with each other by settling down and running our plays.”
Airdrie came out flying after the restart and would take its first lead of the contest on a quarterback option from the five-yard line to cap a dominant drive.
The Raiders added to the advantage in short order with a catch and run up the gut with a few missed open field tackles opening the door for the 40-plus yard major. Airdrie would add a late field goal to sew up the 10-point margin of victory.
“We got caught up watching on the defensive side of the ball instead of tackling,” the coach added. “In fairness to our defence we’re in a situation where we can’t do a lot of tackling in practice because you don’t have the bodies. If you hurt somebody in practice, you’re down a body.”
With the game getting out of reach in the second-half, the team’s decorum didn’t escalate the same way as the scoreline – something the head coach was proud to see.
“Our guys stuck together,” he said. “I didn’t have one guy chirping another about making a mistake, we didn’t have any unsportsmanlike or disrespectful stuff to each other.
“If we can walk away from this, wins or losses, and keep respecting each other that’s something they’re going to keep for their lives.”
Big Rock will look to snap its losing streak at two games when it gets back on the gridiron for a showdown with the Calgary Bulldogs on April 28 at 8:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs are at the bottom of the Parkinson Division standings with a 1-3 record while the Bengals sit tied for second place with a mark of 2-2.
“They won’t have a win next week, we’re going to beat them,” Marlow said.
For more information on the team go to bigrockbengals.com
