The Peacock Tornadoes put together a solid 48 minutes to advance into the semifinals of the Moose Jaw High School Football League's playoffs.

Peacock quarterback Dallas Lister scored two first-half touchdowns to help the Tornadoes beat the Weyburn Eagles, 27-15, in the quarterfinals on Saturday at Gutheridge Field.

"We really got our stuff together in this game, we didn't have a lot of penalties and we just performed to the best of our ability," said Peacock defensive lineman Landon Schier.

The Tornadoes led 14-0 at half-time and extended their lead to 20-0 early in the third quarter. The Eagles kept on fighting until the end, but they just couldn't close the gap enough to get back into the game.

"Overall I'm pretty proud of my guys, a few little mistakes here and there, but by far this was probably our best game, both offensively and defensively," said Weyburn quarterback Brett Bowler. "We played our hearts out and I'm so proud of them."

The Eagles were dealt a blow before the game even started, as their running back, Chase Fillmore, who led the league in rushing during the regular season, was sidelined with an injury.

Without Fillmore, Peacock's defence was able to hold the Eagles' ground game in check with 43 total yards on 21 carries during a snowy and windy game. 

"It was tough at first (not having Fillmore), knowing that he was always there for us and one of the best players on our team, but our next-up guys played tremendously and did a hell of a job," said Bowler, who finished 7-of-15 for 101 passing yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

Weyburn quarterback Brett Bowler gets a throw off under pressure from the Peacock defence during Saturday's quarterfinal at Gutheridge Field. (Photo: Marc Smith)

Peacock opened the scoring on a nine-yard touchdown run from Lister early in the second quarter. 

The Peacock quarterback found his way into the end zone again just over five minutes later when he scampered 20 yards to paydirt to make it a two-touchdown game heading into halftime.

"Our first half was probably our best half of the season, we came out hard and kept them in their end," said Peacock defensive back Tristan Kuntz.

Lister finished with 96 yards rushing and 91 yards passing to help lead the Tornadoes to the win. The first-year QB left the game with an injury in the second half as his team finished off the win.

Kyle Yamniuk came in at quarterback for Peacock and scored on a five-yard run with 5:49 to go in the third quarter, which made it 20-0 for the Tornadoes.

Weyburn receiver Parker Mantei hauled in a seven-yard touchdown with two minutes left in the third to get the Eagles on the board.

Peacock extended its lead back to three scores when Kayde Shymko ran in from eight yards out with 7:45 to play, making it 27-7.

Mantei caught his second touchdown of the game with a 20-yard catch-and-run that cut Peacock’s lead down to 14 points with 4:21 left in the game.

The Tornadoes conceded a safety with under two minutes to go, but that was as close as the Eagles would get.

Peacock running back Kayde Shymko drives ahead for more yards during Saturday's win over Weyburn. (Photo: Marc Smith)

"It felt pretty good to have the game we did on defence," said Schier.

Peacock's defence forced four turnovers out of the Eagles in the win, including a pair of interceptions for safety Kaiden Smith-Schoffer. Yamniuk added an interception as well.

Shymko had a big game for Peacock with 15 carries for 90 rushing yards and three catches for 78 receiving yards.

Mantei finished with five catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns in the loss for Weyburn.

Peacock will now take on the Yorkton Raiders in the semifinals coming up this Saturday. The other semifinal will have the Central Cyclones battling the Swift Current Colts.

Central won 2-0 over Vanier in their quarterfinal on Saturday, while Swift Current rolled to a 69-22 win over Estevan.