New Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs quarterback Kaleb Bechtold looked good in his first game and the defence held strong for most of the first half but it was the Moose Jaw Peacock Tornadoes coming through with a 36-12 victory to open the Elecs’ season in Moose Jaw.
The Elecs opened the scoring in the second quarter with a 46 yard catch and run from Jonah Bachorcik but the Tornadoes came back with a safety and a touchdown before the end of the first half to claim a 9-6 lead at halftime in Moose Jaw High School Football League action.
“We’ve got a good team this year,” said Bechtold after the game. “We’re proud to have the team we have this year. We’ve got a good group of guys and it’s a lot of fun behind with them.”
Elecs coach Mark Schott also felt good about the way the Elecs started the game.
“We have a lot of great athletes and a lot of guys who are fired up and ready to go on both sides of the ball,” said Schott. “We just maybe ran out of gas and ran into a bit of injury trouble in the second half… We can take away a lot in this game and move forward.”
The third quarter belonged to the Tornadoes, who have been in seven of the last 10 provincial 3A finals, and they ran away with the game.
Dalton Schrader pulled in a seven-yard pass with less than a minute to go in the game for the Elecs’ only other score.
Bechtold was 14-for-26 passing for 210 yards and wasn’t intercepted once. Rylan Erdelyan led receivers with 93 yards on three catches, while Bechtold led Elecs rushers with 22 yards on the ground.
“We enjoyed being out here and we knew right from the start that we could stick with them,” Bechtold said.
When the Elecs were at their best, the defence helped turn the ball over several times in the first half.
“The D was awesome today. Early on, we got a lot of turnovers from them and that was huge for us,” Bechtold said.
The way the defence played in the game was incredible, Schott said, and they set themselves up with some good drives on offence.
“It would have been nice to punch a few more of those into the end zone and put up some points,” Schott said. “Defence was great and we put up a lot of yards on offence. But more points would have been nice.”
The Elecs got some injuries during the game and didn’t have a lot of time to lick their wounds as they returned to action Tuesday at home to Moose Jaw Vanier. Their next game after that is on Football Day in Estevan Saturday when they take on southeast rival Weyburn Eagles.
