Elizabeth Middle School Lions quarterback Levi Krahn fakes a handoff to both Ethan Tremblay and Calvin Feader to fool the Eatonia Spartans defenders during the Lions’ 60-0 win on Sept. 17 over the visiting team in six-man junior football action in Kindersley.
Clarion Staff
The Elizabeth Middle School Lions have passed the midway point of their season and the team is perfect going into an away game tomorrow night in Macklin.
The Lions hosted the Eatonia Spartans on Sept. 17 for their final home game of the six-man junior football league season. The Lions won 60-0 to get the team’s fourth win of the season and to improve to 4-0 overall. The team has two games left to close out the regular season.
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An overpowered and undermanned Spartans team was no match for the Lions. The team will wrap up its regular season in Rosetown on Sept. 30, and the league standings will then determine whether or not the Lions will host a playoff game in October.
Coach Cameron Aitken, who has been involved with the Lions program since it started, said the team has done well this season. Students in grades 6-8 are eligible to play for the team, and the coach attributes the team’s early success to a dedicated group of older kids.
“It’s because we have such a good, committed Grade 8 bunch,” he said, recognizing that the Grade 8 players on the team today were fortunate to get a lot of playing time when they were starting out as first-year players.
He noted that the team had very few Grade 8 players in 2017, so several of the current Grade 8 players also got to play a lot last year. The playing time has paid off, and Aitken said the team’s current starting quarterback played the position last year in Grade 7.
The coaches do not have to focus as much on teaching the basics, so they are able to focus more on fine tuning the players, he said. The team has two practices each week and one of the practices is still dedicated to fundamentals such as tackling and blocking, but the other practice is more about game preparation.
Aitken said the team sets its game plan for offensive and defensive responsibilities in the second practice. He added that the team has been able to play its first-year kids often this season due to building up comfortable leads in games.
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