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Wildcats improve their record with win over Raiders, Panthers suffer big defeat

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Last-minute touchdown - Landon Potter of the Wildcats scores the last touchdown of the game against Lindsay Thurber Raiders of Red Deer on Thursday

In another week of fluctuations in Stettler football, Wm E. Hay’s Wildcats won a convincing 20-0 victory over Red Deer’s Lindsay Thurber Raiders while the peewee Panthers got blown over 46-0 by Innisfail Cyclones in their first away game of the season.

In Thursday’s game, Sept. 23, the Wildcats did not take too much time to penetrate the Raiders’ defensive line on the home field.

Within only two minutes of the start of the second quarter, Dustin Dayman opened scoring for the local boys with arushing touchdown, followed by a successful convert by Wyatt Haustein.

The second touchdown came by Landon Potter just minutes before the end of the third quarter and Potter added another touchdown just seconds from regulation, followed by another successful convert by Haustein.

Wildcats offense seemed to have fixed some of their organizational problems while the defensive line was solid as always throughout the game.

Wildcats’ assistant coach Mark Siemens said they were pleased with the performance of both offensive and defensive lines against the Raiders.

“The offense is clicking more and more with every game and the defense is getting stronger,” he said.

“As a young team, we are not where we would like to be, but we are getting there.”

Siemens said Friday’s away game against the well-coached Notre Dame of Red Deer would be critical in the Wildcats’ efforts to improve as a team.

The Wildcats currently sit at the eighth place in the Tier III in high school football division with a record of two wins, one tie and one loss.

The peewee Panthers have time to take stock of their heavy defeat in Innisfail as they have a bye this week.

The Panthers were not prepared for the well- coached, highly-coordinated, fast-running, hard-hitting Cyclones as the host team did not wait even three minutes to score their first touchdown after the game started.

And they continued to attack the Panthers’ post throughout the 48 minutes. More than three quarters of the game time, the ball remained in the Panthers’ territory.

Panthers’ head coach Gary Sorenson admitted that the offensive line had failed to deliver due to too many fumbles during the snaps.

“Quarterbacks are getting scared of being hit all the time and they can not put up with pressure of the defense of the other team,” he said.

“Honestly, our kids pulled up their tents and once they got a hard hit, they were done.”

Still, Sorenson praised the defensive line and said they stayed on the field much longer than the offense and got tired.

The Panthers will host Red Deer Hornets in their next game on Saturday, Oct. 9.

The bantam Cougars, for their part, will be playing against Lindsay Thurber Raiders in an away game on Saturday, Oct. 2.