Peacock QB Sawyer Buettner leans back to unleash a throw on Friday against Swift Current.

A dominating first half was enough for the Peacock Tornadoes on Friday afternoon at Gutheridge Field as they beat the Swift Current Colts, 41-26 to improve to 3-1 in the High School Football League.  Swift Current drops to 2-2 with the loss.

The Tornadoes built up a three touchdown lead by the early part of the second quarter and didn't look back.  They held on a for the win despite a strong second half by the Colts that made a game of it.

"I was pretty happy with our first half and in the second half, credit Swift Current, they saw some things and moved the ball on us and we had trouble stopping them and they got back into the game, so thank goodness for our good first half," said Peacock head coach Blake Buettner after the game.

Swift Current started the game strong and moved the ball deep into Peacock territory on the opening drive of the game before being picked off by Levi Paul at the ten yard line.  The Tornadoes capitalized and running back Nathan Fall opened the scoring with 4:27 to go in the first quarter on a one-yard touchdown run.

After the Colts next drive stalled, they pinned Peacock deep in their end with a good punt by Jon Unger, but the Tornadoes offence capitalized again when quarterback Sawyer Buettner got them in scoring position by hitting receiver Caleb Havanka for a 44-yard gain.  Fall would score his second TD of the quarter moments later on a 33-yard pass from Buettner.

More big plays followed on Peacock's next drive with Buettner completing passes of 30 and 24 yards before connecting with Paul for a 23-yard TD to make it 21-0 with 8:41 to go in the first half.

"We just came out flat and I don't know what happened.  I thought we were ready to go and we just came out flat," said Swift Current head coach Derek Murdoch.  "We didn't execute right off the bat and Peacock certainly did.  You have to give their offence credit, they made plays."

The Colts got on the board not too much later though as they drove it down the field and quarterback Grady Lamontagne hooked up with receiver Jaylen Mayall for a 20-yard TD pass, cutting the lead to 21-7.

Again Peacock responded though, Fall took a hand off 51-yards down to the Swift Current 17 yard line before catching Buettner's third touchdown pass of the half on the next play to restore the three score lead with five minutes left in the half.

Swift Current scored on back-to-back possessions with Lamontagne taking it himself from two-yards out and Unger hitting a 31-yard field goal with 37 second remaining in the half to make it 28-17.  But, Peacock wasn't done as they used the hurry-up to move the ball quickly up field in the final minute with Buettner hitting Paul up the middle for a 35-yard TD pass, his fourth of the half.

Unger was injured on the play and had to be taken to Moose Jaw Union Hospital by ambulance, there was no update on his condition, but he was moving before being loaded into the ambulance.

Peacock got the ball to start the half and didn't take long to score as Fall took the kick-off 89 yards to paydirt for his fourth touchdown of the game and a 41-17 lead.

The Tornadoes wouldn't do much for the rest of the game and Swift Current was able put together one more scoring drive early in the third quarter to make it 41-24.  Peacock conceded a safety early in the fourth to finish off the scoring.

Buettner continues to look good in his first full season as starting quarterback for Peacock, he completed 15-of-20 passes for 284 yards and four touchdowns in the win.  He says Swift Current was playing a lot of man coverage and that opened up the deep ball, "We got it going good with the deep ball and we had some good runs too, but second half I was pretty disappointed, the offence didn't help our defence out at all, so I'm kind of bitter about the second half, but the first half I thought we played well.

"We let up a bit, I don't think it was a lack of focus or anything, it was just maybe we thought we had it in the bag, but they came back and played really well in the second half and we didn't."

Paul continues to be Buettner's main target through the air as he finished the game with five catches for 106 yards and two TDs.  With two games to go, Paul is on pace to set the single season receiving yards record, he's leading the league with 514 yards at this point and would need 253 yards in the next two games to surpass the old record.  The return of Nathan Fall to the backfield continues to pay big dividends for Peacock as he finished with 178 yards rushing and 84 receiving on 24 touches.  He also had that 89 yard kick off return for a touchdown.

Blake Buettner says they're becoming more and more consistent and that's paying off, "Our fullback has not played High School Football before and he's starting to catch on and getting consistent with our offensive line and getting Nathan a few more reps, he wasn't with us from the start, and just doing our jobs with our receiving core, it's getting better, but it's still a work in progress."

Peacock is now tied with the Yorkton Raiders for second in the league at 3-1 after Yorkton fell 24-20 to the 4-0 Central Cyclones on Friday night.  Swift Current sits alone in fourth place at 2-2.  The Tornadoes' next game is on Thursday when they head to Weyburn and the Colts will be at home against Yorkton that day.

Coming up on Saturday in the High School Football League, the 1-3 Vanier Vikings head on the road to Estevan to take on the 0-4 Elecs.  They kick off at 1:00pm.