There is plenty of season left for the Rams to make a comeback.
On Sept. 11th, the Lacombe Composite High School Rams suffered another lopsided loss when they were defeated by the Hunting Hills High School Lighting 36-7.
After the game Coach Riley Quance told his players that it’s important for them to keep their spirits up and there is enough of the season left that they can learn and come back from these losses.
“We as a coaching staff and players need to stay focused on what our plan was,” said Quance. “You can’t have a knee-jerk reaction and fundamentally change up what we were doing based on two losses.”
Instead of worrying about how well their opponents are playing or focusing on the mistakes the Rams have made, Quance said it is important for his team to focus on playing their own game and the rest will fall into place. Quance went on to say there is still a lot of season left for the Rams to hit their stride.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
The Lightning opened scoring for the game last week late in the first quarter with a touchdown and successful conversion kick to take a 7-0 lead. For the remainder of the game, Hunting Hills would continue to extend that lead while the Rams struggled to gain any traction.
Lacombe suffered on the defensive end particularly, allowing the Lightning to find holes and burst through their ranks for some long runs, making it easy for the Lighting to gain yards and get in good positions to score.
Once inside of their own 10-yard line, the Rams made some outstanding defensive plays to slow down and even a few times stop the Lightning offensive dead, but even the best defense is not flawless and the Rams soon saw themselves facing a large and rapidly widening score gap.
On the offensive end, the Rams saw more success but a few mistakes and a very strong Lightning defense prevented them from getting the yards needed to score. In the second half of the game the Rams offence improved, gaining more yards and even managing to score one touchdown with a successful conversion kick late in the game.
There will be no easy games for the Rams this season, said Quance. After division change-ups this season, Quance said the Rams will have to fight every night as all their opponents have some very strong football programs.
“There isn’t going to be a night that we are going to be able to take off by any stretch of the imagination,” said Quance. “(Our opponents) have always had good programs.”
As such, the first few games will be more about figuring their opponents out, said Quance. Once that is done, the Rams can focus on figuring out how to beat them.
In any case, Quance said that stiff competition will likely improve the Rams performance. He said in the six or so years he has been on the coaching staff the Rams have always risen to play in those kind of games.
“The competition level is just going to make us better overall throughout the year.”
Quance also commented on the age of the Rams roster this season, saying they have a lot of young players who are still gaining their footing. He also complimented Lacombe’s minor hockey program, saying thanks to experience as Explosion and Raiders players, most new Rams find their place on the field.
“We’ve been lucky with having minor football as strong as it is in Lacombe,” said Quance. “(New Rams players) are able to step in pretty early and make key contributions.”