Central & Peacock Victorious in Tuesday Football

It wasn’t a perfect game, but the Central Cyclones came away with their second straight win and that’s was the goal.

The Cyclones picked up a 21-3 win over the Weyburn Eagles on Tuesday afternoon at Gutheridge Field in the Moose Jaw High School Football League.

“It was awesome, the team played great,” said Receiver C.J. Vincent after the win. “We had a slow start in the first quarter, but picked it up in the second, great catch by Josh (Reidy) in the end zone to get us going and props to the hoggies for pushing forward.”

The win improved Central’s record to 2-1 on the year as they’ve rebounded nicely from their season-opening loss to Peacock.

Central didn’t play a perfect game by any means, but they did enough to win the game. Cyclones head coach Colin Belsher said that shows the resilient nature of the team.

“We talk about resilience a lot in practice, nothing is ever handed to you and you’ve got to keep working hard and if you do, good things will happen and we did, we kept pushing hard, defence kept getting stops and in the end we were able to pop one in to make it a three-score game,” said Belsher.

Vincent scored a pair of touchdowns in the win for Central, finishing with five catches for 69 yards and two carries for 43 yards to surpass the 100-yard plateau in total yards.

Quarterback Ethan Johnson threw for 184 yards, while running back Dawson Pearce had a big day with 16 carries for 150 yards in the win.

“Our whole team played great, the hoggies just kept pushing forward and kept us going, our captains kept us positive on the sidelines, the vibe is always high for this team,” said Vincent.

The game was scoreless throughout the first quarter and Weyburn finally put the first points of the game up with 5:04 left in the second quarter with a 12-yard field goal by Thomas Goranson.

Those would be the only points of the game for the Eagles however as the Cyclones played bend-but-don’t-break defence throughout the game.

Central would wake-up with 1:02 remaining in the first half as quarterback Ethan Johnson found receiver Josh Reidy in the end zone for a seven-yard score to finish off a lengthy drive.

The Cyclones weren’t done there however as just 30 seconds later, defensive lineman Talen Hoover forced a fumble and set Central’s offence up within striking distance of the Eagles’ goal line.

Vincent would find the end zone on a 13-yard catch to end the quarter and give the Cyclones a 14-3 lead heading into the break.

The second half followed much of the same script with neither team’s offence able to finish off drives until midway through the fourth quarter, Vincent broke a 32-yard run on third-and-one to score the final points of the win.

“That play wasn’t even suppose to go to me, E.J. just gave me the ball and I’ve never seen more grass in my life and I scored, that was awesome,” said Vincent.

Coming off back-to-back lopsided losses to open the season, the Eagles are coming away pleased with the progress that they showed in the game.

“We’re coming off a pair of ugly games where we haven’t really moved the ball at all, so to see our lines pushing Central back a little bit, getting some running yards and our passing game was coming around a little bit, but we’ve got to take that next step and score,” said Head Coach Darren Abel.

“It’s coming. I’m optimistic about the future here.”

Weyburn running back Rylan Hoffman led the team’s offence in the loss with 20 carries for 132 yards, while quarterback Brett Bowler threw for 83 yards.

Both teams have a quick turnaround as they will be back on the field on Saturday with Central facing the Vanier Vikings and Weyburn hosting the Estevan Elecs.

Peacock Stays Undefeated with Win in Swift

The Peacock Tornadoes improved to 3-0 on the year with a commanding 42-15 win over the Colts in Swift Current on Tuesday.

The Tornadoes were able to keep the Colts’ offence in check throughout much of the game, opening up a 14-0 lead after the first quarter and a 20-0 advantage at halftime.

“Our defence isn’t flashy, doesn’t make big plays, we just try to keep everything in front of us and grind them down,” said Peacock head coach Bert Redstone.

“Swift Current got a couple of big plays, but our guys don’t panic and that’s been our philosophy for a few years, and Derrick Huschi running the defence does a good job.”

Peacock's offence was led by receiver Payton Chow, who finished the game nine catches for 183 yards and four touchdowns.  Quarterback Garrick Ward completed 14-of-25 passes for 250 yards with the four TD passes to Chow and one interception.

Tornadoes running back Jackson Woloschuk finished 11 carries for 106 yards and a touchdown.

The loss drops the Colts to 1-2 this season. Head Coach Derek Murdoch felt they left some plays on the board that could have changed the game.

"We actually had plays in the first half where if we connect, we score," said the Colts head coach. "We have to start executing - we've had opportunities and we have to start capitalizing on them. We've lost two football games in a row because we haven't done that."

The Colts were held to just 34 yard rushing in the game, while receiver Nic Bachiu caught a 75-yard touchdown, which accounted for half of their passing yards.

Peacock gets the weekend off before returning to the field on Saturday, Sept. 30 in Estevan, while Swift Current will hit the road to Yorkton to face the Raiders this Saturday.

The Raiders improved to 2-0 on the year with their second straight dominating shutout as they knocked off the Estevan Elecs, 73-0, on Tuesday. Yorkton had won 56-0 against Weyburn in Week 2.