After being confined indoors rehearsing their football moves through winter months, the Prince George Northern Eagles took their game outdoors for the first time Sunday in North Delta.
They lined up against the North Delta Longhorns to begin their second season in the B.C. Football Conference Tier 2 juvenile league and it wasn't long after it began the Eagles were looking for a place to hide.
Down 30-0 after one quarter and 36-0 at halftime, the Eagles managed to stem the bleeding somewhat in the second half but ended up losing 50-0 to the Longhorns.
"Our guys came out slow -- they scored on us the first drive and before we knew it it was 30-0," said Northern Eagles head coach Mike Rositano. "We couldn't shut down their passing. They caught a couple of passes and that was it. We made a few mistakes at the beginning of the game and North Delta didn't, and they capitalized."
The Eagles are mostly rookies right out of high school who are new to the juvenile (17-22-year-old) game and it showed on the field against a veteran-stacked Longhorns team. A couple of first-quarter fumbles by the Eagles turned into North Delta touchdowns. According to Rositano, the Longhorns stuck with their first-string starters most of the game.
"They have about 35 players and over half of them sat on the sidelines, they never rotated guys in," said Rositano.
The Northern Eagles came close to getting on the scoreboard in the third quarter. They had the ball on the one-yard line in a third-and-one situation when miscommunication between running back Daniel Weisgerber and quarterback Duncan Finch resulted in a big loss and an eventual turnover.
"The running back went to the wrong hole and the quarterback thought he was going to the other one," said Rositano. "It's just timing. We've been indoors and we haven't had access to a full field. The Northern Sport Centre has been great, but we don't get a whole field and we're you're trying to practice as a football team, using half a field just doesn't work."
Weisgerber rushed for more than 100 yards, while his younger brother Ryan was a force on defence, making several key tackles. Finch was the Eagles' QB until the fourth quarter when he was replaced by Devin Readman.
The Northern Eagles had just 23 players and they were missing a couple of key ingredients. Offensive lineman Brogan Cruse, a provincial all-star tackle who played in the high school Senior Bowl, was out with back and ankle injuries and defensive back Nick Wingfield was also sidelined with a hernia. The Eagles were also missing cornerback Cam Deboer (flu).
The Eagles will be in Richmond to play the Raiders in their second game on April 20. The Longhorns will play the Eagles April 27 at Masich Place Stadium and face Richmond at home on May 4.
