The Hanley Sabers and Gull Lake Lions continued their dominance of the 1A Conference Three high school senior football league in week two, with the remaining teams looking to build on early season gains to solidify a final playoff spot.
Raiders vs. Sabers
The Davidson Raiders senior boys football team controlled possession of the ball during the first quarter of their 68-19 loss to the Hanley Sabers at the Jungle Sept. 20, but an inability to reach the end zone and an inexperienced defence proved their downfall.
Raiders coach Blair Frederickson said the Davidson offence had possession of the ball for around 10 to 11 minutes of the first quarter at their game in Hanley due to a strong short run and pass game. He said the problem was whenever the Sabers got the ball a quick score would result.
“We had the lead at the end of the first quarter, the start of the second quarter, and I bet we had the ball…10 or 11 minutes (in the first quarter) and they had the ball for one play,” said Frederickson, noting Hanley scored on that one play. Then “we kicked off to them, they got out to the 30, ran one play and put it in the end zone.”
Frederickson said at this point in early moments of the second quarter his offence started to get tired because they were on the field for most of the first 12 minutes, so when they stalled on their next play at the Hanley 40-yard-line and the Sabers ran one play on offence resulting in another touchdown the game was done. He said their Grade 12s on offence played a “great first quarter” and kept to the game plan of holding onto the ball and eating away at the clock, but their young defence couldn’t match up to Hanley’s strong passing game.
“The kids understood what we wanted them to do,” he said, adding Raiders safeties Cole Murfitt and Addison Ouellette played well in the second half. “Get to the outside (and) force Hanley to come back into the middle of the field where we have a shot at them. We just couldn’t make tackles. When we brought it back to the inside of the field the kids were just a little too small to make a big tackle, but they understood the overall concept of what we’re trying to get across.
“Take away the outside because in six-man football it’s such a wide field and it’s only six players, so you have to funnel everything into the middle if you can. We’re working on it.”
Mark Anderson, coach of the Sabers, said the Hanley coaching staff is concerned with their defence after the first quarter they suffered through against Davidson. He said they didn’t come out to play and the Raiders offence drove the ball down the field in the early going, but they were able to come back strong in the second quarter to combat the challenge.
“We just tightened up and (got) a little more aggressive,” said Anderson. “They’re a young team with guys playing both ways and they just wore down (and) got tired.
Anderson said they were able to get a lot of their younger players in during the second half and they have a “ton” of Grade 9 and 10 players on the team this year looking for starting positions, so giving them a chance to see game action provides hope for the future.
Frederickson said there were a lot of positives for his young players and his senior offence during the game, so if they can work on that they should be ready to put up a strong second half of the season and make a run for a playoff spot.
“There are a series of games now where whatever lessons we’ve learned the last few weeks playing, hopefully we’ll be able to use these to compete,” he said. “I’m hoping for success, but I’m confident we’ll compete at a higher level.”
To read more please see the Sept. 30 print edition of The Davidson Leader.