The Northern Raiders had a chance to narrow the lead before halftime.
But three straight unproductive plays, with 40 seconds left in the second quarter, kept them off the scoreboard and on the brink of watching the playoffs from the grandstand.
The team now faces a challenging situation if they want to make the Calgary Midget Football League playoffs, following a 27-0 loss to the Calgary Bulldogs at Shouldice Park on April 29.
“It’s a really tight race right now, so if we get that one win, we can be right back in the mix of things,” said head coach Steve Kemp. “There’s an outside chance and we’ll be a desperate team (May 11), scratching and clawing for everything.”
The Raiders (0W-4L-1T) fell behind 14-0 early in the first quarter to the Bulldogs and never recovered.
“We can’t give them a lead and that’s exactly what we did,” Kemp said. “They’re a tough team when they have the lead. You give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. I thought our defence played well, as usual, and thought our offence is coming along. We just made one or two mistakes – and that’s been the story of our year so far. Teams have capitalized on them.”
Landon Bayda had one of the lone highlights for the Raiders, as he ran for a 60-yard gain with 6:10 left in the second quarter. But the team failed to capitalize, as they missed a field goal.
Moments later, the Raiders had the ball on the Bulldogs’ 40-yard line with two minutes left in the half. A third-down gamble worked, but a short run, an incomplete pass, and a sack on the following third down, stalled the drive and potentially the season.
“That would have been huge,” Kemp said. “Scoring late in the half is always good. It gives you momentum through halftime and it’s something positive to build on going into the third quarter. It’s something we wanted to do, but we just ran out of gas.”
The team was also missing six of its starters for the game, due to the Easter break.
“That was huge,” Kemp said. “They noticed right away and they went after those guys. On defence, they blitzed our weaker guys and we had trouble coping.”
The Raiders’ final game of the regular season, which will be considered a must-win if the team wants to make the playoffs, is against the Calgary Cowboys on May 11. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Shouldice Park’s Encana Field.
Kemp said the longest layoff of the season should help the team recover and come out with a better effort.
“It helps big time for healing up, re-focusing and building a gameplan,” he said. “It’s going to be practice, practice, practice.”
