The Innisfail Cyclones and Carstairs/Crossfield Tigers are high school teams in the Mountain View 9 Man Football League with much to prove this year following so-so regular seasons in 2013 and quick playoff exits.
While both teams came into the Sept. 6 season opener In Innisfail with just two weeks of practice the Cyclones had the big advantage of having superior overall football experience with most of their players having done up to five years playing bantam and peewee. Not so with Carstairs, a gritty team for sure, but time and time again they had all kinds of problems handling Innisfail's speed and running game.
“We have lots of guys who know what they are doing,” said Cyclones' head coach Trevor Wooff, whose squad has half of its 18-player roster comprised of returning Grade 12 players from last year.
At the other end of the field, Tigers' head coach Coe Patton knew his team was in tough, notably because this was his first year leading the team and his players had plenty of adjustments to make.
“You have to realize that I only started head coaching less than two weeks ago. I am bringing in total new systems that they have never seen nor played before,” said Patton.
The Cyclones dominated field position right from the start and quickly built up an 11-0 lead by the end of the first quarter on a running touchdown, field goal and safety.
At 8:15 in the second quarter, Carstairs/Crossfield got on the board when Riley Grimm intercepted a Ward Marshall pass and ran 60 yards for a touchdown. The convert was not good but at least the Tigers were on the board and cut the Cyclones lead to 11-6.
But the Cyclones came back four minutes later when fullback Mischa Maree scored on a 35-yard touchdown run, and with the convert, Innisfail led 18-6 at the half.
The Cyclones offence completely dominated the overmatched Tigers in the third quarter. Kelsey Katchuck, Innisfail's top runner, opened up the flood gates with a 35-year run, which was quickly followed by a safety and unconverted touchdown by Maree, this time an 18-yeard dash. Then Darian Dash took a short pass from Marshall and scampered 48 years for the Cyclones third touchdown of the third quarter and the home team was comfortably ahead 39-6 going into the fourth and final quarter.
But the Tigers then made adjustments. Backup quarterback Marcel Gallant came in and his team was finally able to move the football with authority. Gallant led his squad on two impressive drives in the final quarter and he took matters in his own hands and scored two one-yard touchdown runs. With 50 seconds left in the game the score was then 39-18 but the Cyclones had one last offensive trick left up their sleeves.
Innisfail's Devon Hoffensetz finished the game's scoring with an 85-yard touchdown run and the final score was 46-18.
It was impressive, and Wooff was quick to see many positives from the game his players can seize going into the rest of the six-game regular season.
“The boys were reading their blocks. Their execution was good. You can see their experience. The grade 12s did an excellent job and they brought the younger guys around,” he said, noting his team is short on lineman and the entire team needs to work on its blocking.
Meanwhile, Patton was not at all disturbed by the blowout. He too picked up many positives his squad can build on.
“I saw that my backup quarterback can run, and I saw a few guys that can catch, and a few guys who are hard to tackle,” said Patton. This is a big good team we played and I am proud of all my guys. I liked what we did out there. We just need to polish what we are doing.”
Innisfail's next game is on Sept. 13 in Didsbury where they play the Dragons while Carstairs will have their home opener on the same day against the Sundre.
