It’s going to take something special to slow down this locomotive.
The Foothills Falcons carried their torrent run of play into the opening round of the Tier II provincial playoffs after running away to a dominant 38-7 triumph over the Springbank Phoenix on a gusty Saturday afternoon in Okotoks.
“It was just making sure that we executed,” said Falcons slotback Payton Price. “As long as we stick to what we’ve been coached and told we can push through and go and beat up other teams with what we do in practice.”
Practicing what they preached got the Falcons a commanding 28 point advantage at the half.
Grade 10 standout Payton Burbank opened the scoring when he took a short pass from quarterback Tyson Pitcher and cut through the Phoenix secondary for a 44-yard touchdown.
Early in the second quarter they would double the lead.
Some deception got the Falcons back in the end-zone one play after a touchdown was called off on a holding penalty.
Price’s number was called on a flea-flicker and despite not playing behind centre since his Atom Eagles days the versatile Falcon connected with Tyler Going for an 18-yard touchdown.
“It was a simple pass play,” Price said. “I was to see if he was open and if not just run with it. I just thought I would throw it because I trusted him to make the catch.”
For good reason.
The sure-handed Going, a runningback through most of his minor football, climbed the latter over the Phoenix cornerback and after bobbling it initially corralled it for the perfectly executed major.
“We’ve been practicing that all week,” Going said. “I brought it up, it bounced off my helmet and it found my hands luckily.”
Following a turnover on downs forced by the stout Falcons defence, Price would double his money on the afternoon on a meandering 41 yard touchdown run.
Foothills’ defence again let to offence less than a minute later when shutdown defensive back Seth Nelson picked off a pass at midfield.
Falcons elusive runningback Jude Oh made sure the Phoenix paid dearly for the mistake. Following the blocks of Price and lineman Rainen Schiffner, Oh bounced off tackle for a 10-yard trip to pay-dirt to make it a 28-point lead after two quarters.
“They have a strong linebacker corps and we knew the run would be tough,” Price said. “We ground and pound a little, opened up the passing and we went from there.”
Springbank threatened to get on the board before the end of the half.
Quarterback Grady Munro connected with Cormac Scholz for a near 50-yard gain to get the Phoenix in the red-zone for the first time.
Foothills’ athletic secondary made sure that’s as close as they would get. Back-to-back knockdowns by safety Ben Tighe and Nelson were followed by an interception in the end-zone by the former, the team’s second pick of the half.
“We did a good job as a team. A lot of gang tackles, we had four turnovers on defence,” Going said. “Our motivation for every game, doesn’t matter if we’re playing the best team in the province we always want a shutout.
“If they score two points we’re pretty disappointed in ourselves.”
The second half followed a similar script.
Going secured the team’s third interception leading directly to another score.
Price completed the touchdown trifecta on the afternoon, adding a 50 yard catch and run major through the air to his running and throwing scores earlier in the contest.
Nelson knocked in a 21 yard field goal to complete the 38-point scoreline.
Springbank got itself on the board late in the fourth quarter as Munro hit Camus Berry for a 10-yard score as Foothills was cycling through its backups with the game firmly out of reach.
“They throw the ball a lot. It was probably 80 per cent they threw the ball last week against Cochrane and we were pretty prepared for that,” said Falcons head coach Darren Olson. “We had our 60 B defence ready to go. There wasn’t a whole lot of things they did that we didn’t expect.
“We’ve got a Grade 12 laden defence and they played well again for us today.”
Where the Foothills defence is experienced at the high school level, the personnel on offence is a little bit green.
Not that it’s showing on the field.
“We have very few returning Grade 12s playing for us (on offence),” Price said. “A lot of the new kids have stepped up and shown a lot of how they really love the sport and it’s really helped the team a lot.”
The Falcons advance to face a familiar foe in the next round of the provincial playoffs. It will be Foothills versus the Medicine Hat Mohawks after the latter got the better of the Catholic Central Cougars over the weekend.
There is considerable recent history between the squads.
Medicine Hat derailed the Foothills provincial push in the semifinal round in 2014.
Kick-off is slated for 1 p.m. for the Nov. 12 tilt in the Hat.
