The Northern Raiders may have played its best game of the season last week, but the midget football team is still seeking its first win.
The team, now 0W-3L-1T, dropped its second straight decision, when it fell 14-9 to the Stampeders in Calgary midget football league action at Shouldice Park, April 20.
“Even though it was a tough loss, I thought it was our best played game of the season,” said Raiders head coach Steve Kemp. “We had lots of energy, and lots of spirit, we just let our foot off the gas at the wrong time.”
The Raiders opened the scoring on a first half Josh Duazo touchdown run, but couldn’t keep the lead in the second half as the team allowed two Stamps scores.
“We had two shots to win the game at the very end and we just fell short,” Kemp said.
Injuries and a busy schedule have played against the Raiders so far this season, but Kemp said the nine-day gap between the loss to the Stamps and its April 29 meeting with the Calgary Bulldogs should help.
“After the last game we had a few injuries to key players, so they had the weekend off and a lot of them don’t have school this week,” he said. “It’s a good time to heal up. Unfortunately, with the school break, there’s a lot of kids on holidays, so we’ll be short about a half dozen kids on Friday.”
The Raiders coach also said he know what type of challenge the Bulldogs will pose.
“They are a tough team and always seem to be at the top. They bring it every night and finished second last year, so they’re looking to redeem themselves this year. They’re a hungry team,” Kemp said.
“I think we showed on Wednesday night (April 20) that our offence can move the ball, it’s just that we beat ourselves with mental mistakes, some poor execution and penalties. If we can minimize that and play smart football, we’ll be alright. Our focus is on the next two games, getting a couple W’s in the win column and sneaking into the playoffs.”
Kickoff for the game is 6 p.m. at Shouldice’s Encana Field.
