The Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs football team had a historical night on Friday, but the result wasn’t what they wanted.
The Elecs (1-3) were defeated 52-21 by the Yorkton Regional High School Raider Gridders, the top team in the league. It was the first time the Elecs have played a Friday night game under the lights at Woodlawn.
“The atmosphere was nice,” said coach Mark Schott. “It was a little cool and wet, but luckily it wasn’t constant rain. But there was a mist throughout the entire game.
“It’s pretty fun. It’s a nice environment down there at Woodlawn, and nice and isolated. The lights were great. The coaches off of both teams were saying we should definitely do more night games.
Schott said the Elecs succeeded running the ball at times.
“It’s a very tough and physical Yorkton defence, so it was nice to see from our offensive line to get that push, and Jonah Bachorcik with his speed was able to break a few runs, and he rushed for over 200 yards.”
Bachorcik scored on a 105-yard romp early in the game that gave the Elecs an early 7-0 lead. He finished with 212 yards on 23 carries, while quarterback Kaleb Bechtold had 48 yards on nine carries.
Defensively they forced some turnovers, including two fumble recoveries and an interception.
“We had a number of stops on third down, where Yorkton gambled on third down and we shut them down, so it forced some additional turnovers,” said Schott.
But the Elecs had a couple of lapses that proved to be the difference. It was a relatively close game at half-time, with the Elecs down 25-13, but Yorkton added two more scores in the third for a 38-13 advantage. ECS scored once more in the fourth quarter.
“There’s definitely some room for improvement, but there were a lot of positives in the game,” said Schott.
Quarterback Kaleb Bechtold ran for two touchdowns to account for the Elecs other scores. The latter was a 15-yeard scramble in which he dove for the pylon at the goal line to score.
Schott expects Yorkton will be able to compete with any team in the province once the regular season is finished.
“They’re strong contenders in our league and are a good candidate to advance and do some damage in the playoffs.”
The Elecs next game is Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. at the Woodlawn Athletic Field against the Moose Jaw Central Toilers.
