Pythons slither past short-handed Rebels

The Parkside Pythons strangled the life out of the Taber bantam Rebels Saturday at Ken McDonald Memorial Sports Park.

Taber trailed 30-0 at the half, as the Pythons offence came at the Rebels fast and furious, and poured on the points early and often.

“We just didn’t have the healthy bodies to stop Parkside’s rushing attack,” said Rebels coach Garrett Simmons. “The guys we did have healthy were just overmatched at the line of scrimmage and on the edges.”

Parkside used two lightning-quick running backs and a massive offensive line to constantly push the pile Saturday afternoon, as Taber had no answer.

“We had guys in the right positions most times but we either missed the tackle or our defenders were getting blown up by much-bigger blockers,” said Simmons. “We knew they were going to hit us off tackle all day long, and we just couldn’t stop it.”

Offensively, the Rebels could not get much going either in the first half, as starting quarterback Brad Marsden was knocked out of the game early in the first quarter after his hand smashed against a helmet of a Parkside player on a pass attempt.

“He couldn’t even grip the ball and ended up missing the rest of the first half,” said Simmons.

“That makes it tough when the player who scored four touchdowns the week before is out of the lineup that early.”

But the team responded in the second half, as the Rebels defence picked up its game and the offence was able to put up two scoring drives.

Back-up quarterback Colton Weinberger hit Marsden on a quick hitch pass outside for a score, while Andrew Schimmel scored on a 34-yard run to make the score a little more respectable.

“Parkside had a lot of its backups in the second half but so did we,” said Simmons, who added injuries on the offensive and defensive line and at the running back and linebacker positions left the Rebels thin on the sidelines. “We only had 21 kids dressed, and when you shut down three or four more during the game with injuries, that makes it pretty tough, especially with a team across from you with 44 healthy bodies dressed.”

Simmons added the hope is a few injuries will heal in time for Saturday’s 2 p.m. contest against Brooks in Taber.