The Airdrie Storm played a solid game to open its 2011 Calgary Bantam Football Association season, but allowed too many big plays and gave up too many turnovers to the Calgary Cyclones last week.
Running back Jordan Baldwin scored both Storm touchdowns during the team’s 27-12 loss at Calgary’s Shouldice Park, Aug. 27.
“I thought we played well, I just think that our execution wasn’t where it needed to be,” said head coach Steve Kemp. “We lost the turnover battle and that put us in some bad situations. But there were lots of positives for us to build on.”
The teams were tied 6-6 nearing the end of the first half, but after Baldwin had a big run, he fumbled on the next play. The Cyclones recovered and quickly scored another major to take a 12-6 halftime lead.
The Calgary squad extended its lead to 18-6 midway through the third quarter, on a long rushing touchdown. Airdrie responded a few minutes later when Baldwin caught a 35-yard pass from quarterback Duncan Little, but it was called back on a holding penalty.
“We played a pretty strong game, except for a few mental mistakes,” Kemp said. “Getting big plays called back never helps, but we eventually scored. We were looking for a quick score, but ended up eating the clock a little bit more, which hurt us in the long run.”
Baldwin was able to put one in the endzone two plays later, on a 31-yard run, to make it 18-12.
“We just opened up lots of gaps and I had good concentration,” said Baldwin, 14. “Mistakes happen, but we’re learning that if we make mistakes, to just brush them off and just restart. The defence did have some good moves in the areas, but they just got pushed out by our guys (on those plays).”
Calgary added another touchdown early in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
“It was a decent game, we just need to execute better,” Little said. “We need to work on our mental concentration. We need to keep working on that and just brush them off.”
“I think there was a little bit of pre-game jitters and we’re definitely not used to getting up and ready to play at eight in the morning,” Kemp said. “As the game went on, we got better; we got stronger. For a lot of these guys, it was their first game action in the bantam league. We have some catching up to do. We’re going to work on our execution and practice harder.”
The Storm will return to action against the Calgary Colts at Shouldice Park’s Hellard Field on Sept. 3. Game time is 11 a.m.
