The Northern Raiders relied too much on its defence and dropped another contest in Calgary Midget Football League play last week.
The Raiders, now 0W-2L-1T for the season, lost 24-0 to the Calgary Wildcats on April 15 at Shouldice Park. Head coach Steve Kemp said the team’s young offence is still adapting to the midget-level game, making it difficult to sustain long drives and putting added pressure on its defence.
“I thought our defence played really well,” he said. “They shut them down for most of the game, besides a few lucky plays. But offensively, we just struggled with our execution all game. We were ineffective and left our defence on the field too long. They did the best they could for being on the field for the majority of the game.”
The Wildcats, now second in the Parkinson Division with a 2W-1L record, used its knowledge against an inexperienced Raiders side.
“They knew we were a young offence and tried to confuse our players – and it worked,” Kemp said. “They were ready to go.”
Adding to the Raiders’ woes is that the game was the team’s fourth in 14 days.
“With such a condensed schedule at the start, the injuries are starting to add up,” Kemp said. “Mentally, they are fatigued, and physically they are fatigued. And that’s showing with mistakes we’ve made in the games.”
The team played the midget Calgary Stampeders, April 20 after press time, in its fifth game in 20 days, but Kemp said the message was clear.
“We have to be a desperate team and we have to go get a win,” he said. “One win puts us right back in the playoff race. We’re focusing on that. We’ve changed a few things, with some different formations we put in for this week. They always have big guys, but they’re young just like us. They play hard, but are going through growing pains and will hopefully make some mistake we can take advantage of.”
