Beleaguered Colts manhandled by Huskies once again

It was not the bounce-back effort that Matt ‘Scoop’ Blokker had hoped for.

After being trounced 41-14 by the Edmonton Huskies up at Clarke Stadium last weekend, the Calgary Colts head coach was looking for much more from his young charges against one of their provincial rivals.

But on Sunday afternoon, under sunny skies at McMahon Stadium, the outcome was eerily similar.

Falling behind 34-9 at the half, the Colts tried to muster a secondhalf comeback, but that fell well short, and they were victimized 57-22 by those same Huskies. The Calgary club’s Prairie Junior Football record falls to 1-2, while the Huskies are unbeaten after three weeks. The Colts have now surrendered 108 points in three outings.

“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but there’s no quit,” insisted Blokker. “We have to keep working. We’re young in a lot of positions. We’re young in football IQ. We’re making consistently small mistakes.

“We have to move on. Next week, we’re in Winnipeg. We don’t win that game, we could be out of the playoffs. In this game, you can’t dwell on the good or the bad. We have to fix and get ready.”

The Edmonton club took advantage of defensive breakdowns and sloppy tackling and was a threat every time the offence was on the field.

It began with Jimmie Airey’s 50yard run, eluding myriad tacklers. Then, up 13-2 early in the second quarter, it was a couple of identical plays that had the Colts reeling.

Brad Launhardt threw a 44-yard pass to Conner Bergensen, just behind the Colts defence, and he ran it into the end zone. Then, just 25 seconds later, after the Huskies had recovered the ball, Launhardt hit Bergensen on the same route — this one for 31 yards — and all of a sudden, it was a 27-2 advantage.

At the 12:30 mark, it was Tanner Buchanan who snared a short six-yard TD pass, as the onslaught continued.

“For us to make adjustments, right now, we have to worry about running some basic things and getting some consistency,” said Blokker. “We have to fight through what’s in front of us right now.

“That’s two games in a row our effort as a full team isn’t there. Until we understand you have to work your ass off to win, things aren’t going to change.”

Just as the game’s start was a harbinger of Huskies’ dominance, the second half promised more for the Colts. Upon recovering the kickoff, the Colts got the ball at the Huskies 30 and finished off a short drive with a Jesse Kuntz major score.

Then on their next possession, quarterback Bailey Wasdal, who all afternoon was flushed out of the pocket, threw a 28-yard pass to a wide open Brandon MacIsaac, and, at that point, the game was afoot.

But the dagger to the heart was thrust at 4:05 of the fourth, when Buchanan did a terrific job holding on to the ball in traffic on a 43-yard throw from Launhardt, and the climb became too steep for the hosts.

A 68-yard interception return by Justin Hodinsky late in the game and a score off yet another turnover deep in the Colts zone cruelly sealed the deal.