A 33-6 win gave the Penticton Cougars a solid start to its Southern Interior Football League season.
The game nearly didn’t finish as the Cranbrook Rams midget coach Tim Coyle pulled his team off the field.
Cougars coach Terence Westera explained that Coyle didn’t feel officials called the game fairly.
“There was a couple of missed calls,” said Westera. “Their team was doing a lot of horse-collar tackling, which is on the face. A lot of high hits to the head. The refs are trying to crack down on that a lot. He thought that one of my guys did it to him and we never got a call against it. He kind of stood on the field, started chirping ‘go both ways.’ He took his team off the field and left. I had to go and talk to the ref and try to talk to Tim and calm him down.”
When the game resumed, Westera watched the Cougars take the ball down field with relative ease. That is until they reached the final 10 yards to the end zone.
“We turned the ball over five times, which isn’t very good,” said Westera. “First game jitters so it’s not too bad.”
Westera wants to see more completions in the red zone. On Sunday, the Cougars host the Vernon Magnums in midget action and Westera plans to work on ball control, substitutions and protecting the ball.
“I want to work on completing a drive,” he said. “We can move the ball 70 to 80 yards at a time but we stall when we have three yards left to go.”
The Magnums, Westera said, will be their biggest test of the season. The Cougars coach has confidence they can win utilizing their skill and speed to trump Vernon’s size.
“I don’t see it being a blow out either way,” he said.
Sunday’s game is a noon start at McNicoll Park.