Central's Royce Hanna tackles Estevan's Kaleb Memory short of the goal line.

Another slow start almost doomed the Central Cyclones, but the team came alive in the second half and rolled to a 28-19 win over the Estevan Elecs on Saturday afternoon at Gutheridge Field.

"I don't know what it is," said Central head coach Colin Belsher on the team's slow starts in recent weeks.  "I pushed on them all week that Estevan wasn't coming here to lay one down for us and we knew it was evident in the first half.

"These guys are starting to realize that when we start getting late into the season, we can't allow these first half blunders to happen and we have to play four quarters of football in order to be successful.  We've been lucky enough to have excellent second halves, but as the season goes on, I don't know if that's going to work for us.

"I think it's a maturity process, I think they have to realize that there are teams in this league that are going to beat us if we don't play four quarters of football and I'm hoping they're starting to realize that with the last two games and having the slow starts."

Estevan started quick as they took their opening drive all the way down to the Central one-yard line, but the Cyclones defence dug in their heels and put together an amazing goal line stand.  The Elecs tried six times to punch it in from the one to no avail before turning it over on downs.

Central couldn't capitalized on the big momentum swing and Estevan eventually broke through with a 21-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kolby Fleury to receiver Tyler Thiessen at the start of the second quarter.  The Elecs kept the pressure up and after a fumble by Central running back Dabolis Ebet, they struck again.  This time with a 36-yard TD hook-up between Fleury and Evan Tarnes to make it 13-0.

The Cyclones were finally able to break through with 2:38 to go in the half as quarterback Bren Forbes took a QB draw for 41-yards and then hit receiver Parker Chow for a 23-yard touchdown just moments later to make it 13-6 going into half.

The second half was a completely different story for Central as they came out and looked like a different team.  Forbes scored from four-yards out to make it 14-13; then they were able to recover a short kick off and score again, just 1:15 later, with Chow and Forbes hooking up for the second time in the game, this time from 34-yards out, to make it 21-13.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Central punted the ball away, but defensive back Royce Hanna was able to strip the ball away from the Elecs returner to give the Cyclones the ball on the 20-yard line.  That set up Chow's third touchdown of the game as Forbes hit him along the sidelines for a 20-yard TD and a 28-13 lead.

After a string of penalties late, Estevan was able to tack on another touchdown with Tarnes catching his second TD of the day on a 27-yard pass from Fleury, but that would be all the scoring as Central won 28-19.

Belsher says some turnovers at key times were huge for them, "The defence, we talked to them as coaches saying that we needed the ball back because the offence really couldn't find that rhythm and we really needed that momentum change and I think those turnovers when we recovered them was the big change in the game for us."

The Cyclones were led by a really balanced offensive attack on the afternoon as Forbes went 15-of-21 for 176 yards passing and he also carried the ball nine times for 75 yards.  Chow had a big day with four catches, three of them for touchdowns, and a team-high 80 yards.  There were five different players with catches and five others who carried the ball in the game.

Chow says they made things really tough on themselves with the slow start, "Our last game against Weyburn too we did the same thing, we came out really underestimating and then in the second half we played with a lot of heart and really started pulling it back.

"Some emotional words from Coach Belsher really helped and we found that drive in side and just pushed."

Despite throwing three interceptions, Fleury had an impressive day for the Elecs.  He went 16-of-30 for 227 yards passing and three touchdowns.  Tarnes was their top receiver with five catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns.

Estevan head coach Mark Schott says he was really impressed with their play on offence, "Our offence continues to be our strength.  They continue to move the ball well through the air and our running game is finally starting to get going, which is nice, and we like what we see and hope that it continues."

The Elecs have a lot of players going both ways and Schott says that starts to slow them down in the second half of games, especially playing three games in the last ten days, "This game was very similar to our first few games, we had a really good start, it would have been nice to punch that opening drive in.   I think we were a lot better in this second half than we have been in the past, but it still wasn't where we need it to be."

The win improves the Cyclones to a league leading 3-0 and drops the Elecs down to 0-4 on the year.  Central is back in action on Friday when they head to Yorkton for a night game, while Estevan is off until next Saturday when they host Vanier.