OLDS — The Bantam Bulldogs football team put on a heck of a show Saturday, coming back from a 26-8 deficit to beat the Sylvan Lake Lions 32-26 with just four seconds left on the clock.
It was the first game during Football Day in Olds at Normie Kwong Park. In the second game, the pee wee Huskies were hammered 65-32 by the Lacombe Explosion.
In the Bantam game, Olds drew first blood, but Sylvan Lake scored four touchdowns to take a 26-8 lead.
The Bulldogs responded, scoring three straight TDs of their own.
“Whoa, that was a tough game. We knew they were going to be a very good team,” head coach Matt Sutherland said during an interview with the Albertan afterward.
“We had a bye the first week, so this was our first game of the season. We knew it was going to be a tough one and it was definitely a tough battle and an awesome fight.”
One factor in the game was the sheer size of many of the Sylvan Lake players. Even their kicker was big; about the size you’d expect for an offensive or defensive lineman.
Several Bulldogs looked pretty small in comparison, but they managed to tackle several Explosion players – occasionally for losses.
“Yeah, Sylvan is a big team. They hit hard,” Sutherland said.
“We work hard on making sure everybody can tackle and everybody’s doing their job. We coach them (our players) to hit and tackle and get that ball back, so they did awesome.”
This Saturday, the Bulldogs will take on Drumheller at home. Game time at Normie Kwong Park is 12 noon.
There are lots of areas for the Bulldogs to improve as they prepare for that game, Sutherland indicated.
“Obviously there were a lot of turnovers, lots of penalties. We’ve got to work on that, cleaning that stuff up,” he said.
On the other hand, he believes his team learned a lot from this game.
“Being the first game of the season, a lot of new kids, they learned to keep fighting ‘till the end of the game,” he said.
