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Elecs engage in defensive scrimmage with Eagles

The Estevan Comprehensive High School Elecs football team is a young squad picking up the nuances of the high school game as they go.
Elecs
Estevan Elecs running back James Knibbs runs with the ball while being chased by members of the Weyburn Eagles.

The Estevan Comprehensive High School Elecs football team is a young squad picking up the nuances of the high school game as they go.

The Elecs proved they can control the game defensively in their controlled scrimmage with the Weyburn Eagles Friday at Woodlawn Field, a scrimmage that only saw them surrender a single touchdown.

“I think we showed a lot of potential,” said Elecs head coach Mark Schott. “In practice it's hard to know exactly what we have. When you're up against an opposing team and have guys plugged into spots, you can see how they'll react to a team where we don't know how they'll react on defence or offensively.”

The players were often in different spots for the first time in a game situation at this level. The team graduated stalwarts like Donny Mortenson and Troy Leptich last year, but did well and Schott felt they showed potential.

The teams agreed to play two or three 10-play drives, with no special teams and no blitzing or hitting the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. This allowed the coaches to see the offence and defence for extended periods of time.

“We made some big stands,” Schott said. “Weyburn drove the ball effectively but we made some big plays inside our own red zone... We flowed well, read the play and made some big hits. I think when we have a lot of inexperience it's nice that we're able to get on the field and make things happen.”

It's also the case where an offence can take a bit longer to gel as a unit than defensively.

“There's a big advantage there,” he said. “Offensively there could be a lot coming at a player especially an inexperienced player to interpret a play and look at the playbook. So that takes a little bit longer. I think overall the offence clicked on some series and there were some good things out there.”
Overall, this is about where Schott expected his team to be at this point in the pre-season.

The Moose Jaw High School Football League regular season starts for the Elecs on Saturday when they take on the Vanier Vikings at Moose Jaw. The Weyburn game will go a long way to helping the team establish who they are.

“We established some depth (last Saturday) in terms of slotting guys into some spots,”Schott said. “Vanier over the last few years has been similar to us. They've been kind of middle of the pack-ish, and fairly similar in numbers to us so it should be a good game.”