An excellent fourth-quarter performance from Bow Valley Bobcats saw them edge Springbank Community High School Phoenix 11-7 on Oct. 13 to record their first win of the Rocky View Sports Association regular-season.
Bobcats defensive coordinator Dean Lang was ecstatic about the result.“You just have to go in every day and put in your best effort,” Lang said. “I thought the boys did an outstanding job.
“We knew Springbank were a well-coached team, and that our boys would have to play hard. It was a good victory.”
It was a close, hard-fought game between two teams that were both looking for their first win of the season. Things started poorly for Bobcats, as Phoenix middle linebacker Daniel Teitz recovered a fumble on the first offensive play of the game and returned it for the away side’s only touchdown.
From there, the game was dominated by good defensive plays from both sides as a heavy, steady wind out of the west made passing difficult.
The game devolved into a middle of the field tug-of-war during the second and third quarters, with neither side being able to get hold of the game despite numerous turnovers. Bobcats put together a solid drive near the end of the third quarter, but were again stopped by solid Phoenix defending on their one-yard line.
In the fourth quarter, the game picked up as Bobcats began to dominate, spending most of the quarter inside the Phoenix half. Quarterback Simon Vincent and receiver Brad Hillier’s offensive play worked wonders for Bobcats as Vincent threw a 43-yard TD pass to Hillier to level things at 7-7 before Rylen Waugh converted the extra point.
“Our defence wore down because they were on the field the entire game,” Phoenix head coach Tony Lucas lamented. “We had two or three first downs the entire game, and that’s on the offence.”
The biggest thing Lucas believes that his team can take from this game onto the rest of the season is focusing on sustaining more offensive drives.
“We need to play better on offence,” Lucas said. “It’s a team effort, for coaches and players. We need to prepare the players better, because they were not all that well prepared today.
“We just need to play better in general.”
