Weyburn's Reece Williams shakes off a tackle from Central's Bailey Wong.

The Central Cyclones knew it was going to be a rebuilding year, but they didn’t think it would start as rough as Saturday.

 

The Cyclones couldn’t get anything going in their season opener as they lost 31-8 to the Weyburn Eagles at Gutheridge Field.

 

“We were making mental mistakes, we were making physical mistakes, the little ones compounded up to big mistakes and obviously when compound that many little mistakes, you’re down by quite a bit,” said Cyclones head coach Colin Belsher after the game.

 

“It’s a tough start to our season.”

 

Where Central struggled the most was in the trenches as Weyburn’s big offensive and defensive lines controlled the game.  

 

“We’re not the biggest offensive or defensive line and Weyburn has pretty big lines,” stated Belsher.  “I think as coaches we just need to be creative and take some of the stress away from the kids that are getting pushed around by bigger bodies.”

 

The Eagles ended up rushing for 334 yards on 38 carries as they really didn’t even look to the air during the game.  They were led by running back Reece Williams, who carried 11 times for 126 yards and a touchdown.

 

Chase Ryan added eight carries for 73 yards and Quentin Ruckaber had eight for 64 yards and a touchdown.

 

“We’ve got some key big guys that can move the pile,” said Darren Abel, Weyburn head coach.  “It was nice to see that we didn’t have to pass the ball a lot today, we kind of controlled the game on the ground, and I thought they did an excellent job.”

 

It took a bit for both teams to find their legs early in the game, but Weyburn took over in the second quarter and never looked back.

 

A 28-yard run by Williams set up the Eagles with first and goal early in the second quarter and Kirk Winter capped it off with a three-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Dionne.

 

Winter attempted just six passes in the game and finished 3-of-6 for 19 yards.

 

Central’s offensive struggles continued after that and they conceded a safety at the 5:19 mark of the second to put Weyburn up 9-0.  

 

They added to that lead just before half after a bad snap on a punt by Central gave Weyburn the ball on the one-yard line.  Ruckaber punched it in from there, after the Eagles had a bad snap of their own on the convert, they led 15-0 at halftime.

 

Weyburn’s offence really started to roll in the third quarter as they picked up back-to-back touchdowns from twin brothers Rhett and Reece Williams to go in front 28-0.

 

Ruckaber added a 19-yard field goal late in the frame to cap off the scoring for the Eagles.

 

Central was able to break the shutout with 1:58 to go in the game as quarterback Parker Chow found slotback Jacob Laboccetta for a 13-yard score.  Zach Hagerman added the two-point conversion to make it 31-8 for Weyburn.

 

“That was what Parker Chow needed, being basically a first time quarterback, he needs a little bit of confidence and needs to trust the guys around him,” said Belsher on their final score.  “He made a couple big plays as an athlete and as the year goes on the running game will pick up a bit and alleviate some of the stress off of Parker.”

 

Chow finished 60 yards passing on 12 attempts and 27 yards rushing on nine carries.  

 

Hagerman was the Cyclones’ top rusher with 11 carries for 39 yards, while Laboccetta led the team in receiving yards with three catches for 39 yards.

 

“We’ve got a pretty young team and I’ve been telling them all along that the scoreboard doesn’t necessarily matter as long as we’re improving,” said Belsher.  “I thought we improved, I saw a lot of good plays out of some young kids that it was their first time on the field in high school football.”

 

For Weyburn, their running game will keep them in a lot of games led by the Williams’ twins, who are both in Grade 12.

 

“Both Reece and Rhett had really good games,” stated Abel.  “Both kids are outstanding athletes and you could see that they’ve been working hard in the offseason with the strength in their legs and the way they run the ball, so we’re looking for some good things from them this year.”

 

The Cyclones will travel to Swift Current next Saturday, while Weyburn will be home to Estevan -- who lost 56-6 to Peacock on Friday.  Swift Current opened the season with a 28-21 win over Vanier in the early game on Saturday.