The Westlock Thunderbirds chose the right time of year to pour on the offensive pressure, winning their first game of the year in the Wheatland Football League consolation playoffs last weekend.
The team travelled to Cold Lake to meet the Royals Oct. 20 and came away with the 36-24 win, which propelled them into the finals against Wainwright next weekend.
“We’re feeling really good. It was a little more exciting bus ride home for the guys,” said head coach Jon Kramer after the game.
“As coaches it’s nice to see everything finally pay off. With the losses every week you learn something, you get better. We’ve done a good job, our veterans and coaches too, learning from each week’s loss and finding the things we can improve on and this was the week where after all that build-up that it really paid off for the guys.”
Having played the Royals at Friday Night Lights at the end of September, the coaching staff noticed just a few things on offence and defence that the Thunderbirds could improve on. They took that knowledge and applied it to their game on the field and came out winners, said Kramer.
The Thunderbirds came out hungry, racking up a 30-8 score before the end of the first half. That included two punt returns that were taken down the field for touchdowns, one of which was the opening play of the game.
“I think it was one of the times we’ve really had a strong lead like that and the guys just didn’t look back. They poured it on as heavy as they could and we just held on,” said Kramer, adding the Cold Lake team showed some character and didn’t give up for the whole game.
“We were happy the final whistle sounded when it did because they just didn’t quit.”
Going into the game against Wainwright, Kramer said his team is prepared, and they know they are playing a team they can win against. When the team last met Wainwright Sept. 28, both teams traded scoring plays throughout the game, but the Thunderbirds came up just short as the Royals scored on the last play of the game to take the 28-26 win.
Kramer credited his captains and the assistant coaches for keeping the faith throughout the 0-6 season and setting good examples for the younger players.
“The guys feel really good about being in a position where they can still accomplish their goals and hopefully put on another good performance in Wainwright,” said Kramer.
“We probably won’t reinvent the wheel. We know we had a really good thing going this weekend and we’ve just been growing each week, trying to learn from our losses. The blessing of losing those last two close games is everybody put in the extra work to figure out what they could improve on.”
