Eagles Football in Winnipeg

The Eagles travelled on Thursday to Winnipeg to face the undefeated Sisler Spartans and gave a good account of themselves before ultimately falling 21-1.

The team squandered multiple opportunities and couldn’t finish what had been sustained drives deep into Spartan territory. The Eagles opened the scoring after driving the ball 82 yards down to the Sisler 9 but managed only a single point after missing the field goal attempt. Before the quarter ended Sisler took the lead when their quarterback had a spectacular run where he eluded almost every defender in the course of his 75 yard scamper. They added another score before the half for a 14-1 advantage.

The 2 teams played a scoreless third quarter that saw Dryden again move the ball into scoring range but both field goal attempts were blocked. A 28 yard Spartan pass in the 4th completed the scoring.

Highlights for Dryden were Jesse Gerula’s day at Running Back with 11 carries for 71 yards, 5 catches for another 30 and a 26 yard pass to Jhustin Czajkowski. Shane Kurtin was 3-7 passing for 24 yards and ran for another 52. Defensively Caine Benham had 5 tackles caused and recovered a fumble, Tanner Russell had 9 tackles, Ray Durand had 2 and recovered 2 fumbles.

Coaches feel that next week’s Homecoming game against Tec Voc will go a long way to seeing how far Dryden can go into the playoffs. “The remaining teams on the schedule all have similar records to the Eagles and home field advantage and a renewed commitment to physical football could lead to a strong finish. If all 12 players on the field can play more as a unit, we can play with anyone. The problem is we have a few spectators on most plays. Football requires all parts aggressively doing their jobs for the group to succeed, we have a ways to go in the department of cohesiveness and a trust that all will battle for one another at all times. It will come.”