Royal head to Westlock for Conciliation Game
Cold Lake Royals season continues with a game Saturday
Photo Credit: Chastity Roberts
The Cold Lake Royals may have lost a tough battle against the St. Paull Lions to advance in the A-side, Provincial run of the Wheatland Football League, but they are not out of the season just yet. The Royals will travel to Westlock on Saturday for a 1:00 pm kickoff against the Westlock Thunderbirds.
Head Coach of the Royals, Kelly Johnson, says the club battled hard agains the Lions on Monday afternoon, “it was a tough game.” Due to heavy snow and icy conditions the game had been postponed from Friday to Monday; however even on Monday things weren’t ideal for football. Such is the life of Canadian football, says the coach, “St. Paul did a great job getting the field clear for the game. We had OK playing conditions.”
Mirroring St. Paul’s coach, Jon Lumby, coach Johnson says there was not a lot of offense in the game. “Their defence played very well, they had a great game plan in place to stop our offence.” Johnson takes on a lot of the responsibility for not being able to break through the Lions D-Line. “Our coaching staff should have done a better job getting our players ready for the game. We had trouble getting drives started and maintaining any momentum all game.”
The Royal’s D-Line was also impressive during Monday’s game, says the coach, “Our Defence played great all game. A few players and outstanding games. Anthony Francis at outside Linebacker played awesome, his best defensive game of the season. Daniel Delorme at defensive half back shut down one side of the field all day. Liam Blackburn at nose guard had another great game stuffing the inside run game.”
Heading into Westlock on Saturday, the Royals have some time to prep. “Westlock will be another tough game. They run what we call a double wing offence. It is tough to game plan for,” coach says the team will be practicing and watching film to ensure they are prepped adequately for the match. “We will hope to keep their run game bottled up and get our offence rolling into the end zone.”
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