Bantam Rebels revamping playbook

A beat up and depleted bantam Rebels team came out on the short end of a 20-0 loss Saturday in Taber.

The Medicine Hat Colts used three long touchdown runs to earn the Southern Alberta Minor Football Association win, as the Rebels could not respond with points of its own on offence.

“I think we had six or seven first downs the entire game,” said Rebels head coach Garrett Simmons, whose team was without its first, second and third-string quarterbacks for the contest. “It was a rough outing. We threw together an offence for this week and we felt pretty good about things after a good week of practice, but it just didn’t come together on Saturday.”

The Colts used a blazing-fast running back, who torched the Rebels for a number of big plays, and helped make some key stops for Medicine Hat on defence, as the game’s difference maker.

“You take that one player out of the offence and that’s a completely different game,” said Simmons. “That one running back probably had two thirds of his team’s offence, at least.”

Taber’s defence held strong for most of the contest, however, as the Rebels forced a few turnovers, which the offence simply could not do anything with.

“We’re revamping the playbook and going back to last year’s scheme,” said Simmons. “We created an offence this year to take advantage of the skills of some of our top players but without them in the lineup, the system has not been effective, except for that first game when we put up 30 points.”

The Rebels will play at home again this weekend with an 11 a.m. game at Ken McDonald Memorial Sports Park against Pincher Creek.

The team will then have a short turnaround for its next game, another home tilt on Oct. 8 against Coaldale.

“These are two big games for us,” said Simmons.

“We need a couple of wins to start  to get the ball rolling before playoffs.”

The Rebels close out the regular season on Oct. 12 in Raymond.