RB Jacques Van Heerden stumbles into the end zone for his two-yard TD against Peacock.

Tuesday’s Moose Jaw high school football clash between the Central Cyclones and the Peacock Tornadoes at Gutheridge Field was a battle of Swift Current's next two opponents.


The game saw the Cyclones pick up their first win of the season over the defending league champs, 18-10.

 

The win was a complete reversal for the Cyclones after they committed numerous penalties in a season opening loss to Vanier last Thursday.  In this one, they benefitted from some costly fouls by the Tornadoes late in the game to come out on top.

 

It was a quick turnaround for Central after playing just five days ago and having only two days to practice for Peacock.  

 

Head coach Colin Belsher says he thought his team performed well, “Peacock is always out for a fight, it's a slugfest every time you play them and I'm proud of these guys for playing just enough to win or playing to the level of their competition and still coming out with a victory.”

 

Slotback Daniel Bjorge adds that it was tough to go out there on such short rest, “Especially after a long weekend and not practicing, we had two practices before this game, and it's tough on your body, but we showed we had a lot of heart.

 

Bjorge’s 16-yard fourth quarter touchdown was the difference for Central in this one.  He finished with three catches for 12 yards and punted for an average of 35.4 yards to help the Cyclones in the field position battle, including a single late in the fourth quarter to essentially seal the win.

 

His touchdown was set up by a a controversial interception by Royce Hanna of Peacock quarterback Zach Huschi.  Central was awarded the ball on a close play, but it was moved up to the six-yard line after Peacock protested the call and one of their coaches was ejected from the game.  

 

Two plays later, Central QB Bren Forbes connected with Bjorge for the TD catch in the corner of the end zone with just over seven minutes to go.

 

Belsher says that series of plays was a big momentum swing late in the game, “I think they made the right call, it was a fight and ultimately we ended up getting the ball and a couple of flags went down from the bench on Peacock and forced us into a scoring position, which help us get the winning score.  Something as simple as a change of possession like that can really put the game in your favour.”

 

Peacock coach Blake Buettner stated that was the story of game for them as penalties killed them, “I just thought we were undisciplined and I take responsibility for that.  We talked to the players and I apologized because it wasn't just our players, it was our coaches as well.

 

“We blew it, we were very undisciplined and a big lack of focus with offside calls.  We shot ourselves in the foot numerous times.”

 

For Central, they corrected many of their season opening mistakes and their offence got rolling in the second half leading them to the win, Bjorge says they knew they couldn’t repeat last week, “We got a good talking to about the penalties and that kind of did it in for us last week and we were a lot smarter about it this week.”

 

The game started well for Peacock as they took a 3-0 lead into the second quarter on a Nathan Corrin 29-yard field goal late in the first.

 

Central would capitalize on a fumble by the Tornadoes when Jacques Van Heerdan went in from two-yards out.  Van Heerden wouldn’t have much room in this game, picking up only 42 yards on 12 carries.

 

Peacock came out of the gates firing to start the second half and chewed up over five minutes off the clock.  They capped off the long drive with a two-yard plunge by the rookie Huschi.

 

Grade 10 running back Nathan Fall was a force on the drive and was the engine for the Tornadoes offence all game, he finished with 19 carries for 114 yards.

 

Kicker Chris Brennan came up short on a 25-yard field goal attempt midway through the fourth quarter and that led to the Hanna interception and the decisive touchdown.

 

Central’s Forbes went 11-of-21 for 105 yards as Central improved to 1-1.  Huschi performed well behind some great blocking by his offensive line going 9-for-13 with 64 yards passing, but Peacock dropped to 0-1.

 

Next action for the Tornadoes comes on Saturday when they host the Swift Current Colts at 1pm.  Vanier will follow against Estevan at 3:15pm.  Both games are at Gutheridge Field.

 

The Cyclones won’t see the field until Friday, September 16th in Swift Current.