Injury Plagued Vikings Fall To Colts
Photos and story by Robert Thomas
The Vanier Vikings bench usually has 13 players but on Tuesday evening the Vikings found themselves with five injured players.
Despite the short bench the Vikings were able to score 51 points against powerhouse Swift Current Colts in a 51 to 88 loss.
The loss gives the Vikings an 0 - 2 record in the Moose Jaw city senior boys league.
Despite the loss the Vikings were able to keep up with Colts in the First Quarter as the score was Vikings 9 and the Colts 15.
But as the game went on it was obvious the short benched Vikings were progressively running out of gas.
The Second Quarter was big for the Colts as wracked up 31 points to the Vikings 11.
The score at half time was Colts 46 and Vikings 20.
The Third Quarter was the Vikings best scoring quarter as they scored 18 points versus 20 wracked up by the Colts.
The score at the end of quarter was Vikings 38 and the Colts 66.
The Fourth Quarter saw the Vikings score 13 points versus the Colts 22.
The final score was Vikings 51 and Colts 88.
“It was pretty good to be honest for missing half of our team. I think we came out competed really well,” Vikings head coach Brody Wasmann.
“All things considered we had a great night. The eight guys we had played hard.”
Compared to last week’s 108 - 40 loss to the Peacock Toilers the Vikings have improved.
The injury plagued Vikings have players with varying degrees of injury. Some players are injured so they won’t be back on the roster for a month or more.
Whereas a couple of players should be back on the roster in two weeks time.
The extremely short benched Vikings is limited how the team can play.
The Vikings almost featured an even shorter bench when one of their players managed to wrack up four fouls in the first half alone.
“We can’t be aggressive and we have to be smart where we use our energy,” Wasmann said, adding “we talked to the guys use up your energy on defence take a break on offence if you really need it. Otherwise let us know and we’ll get someone else in for you.”
Fatigue, as the game goes on, slowed the short benched Vikings.
“The way you can play in the first quarter is much different then the fourth quarter when you’re gassed. You just need to find another level so you can compete .”
He described the first quarter as the Vikings coming out strong and catching the Colts a little bit surprised.
“They didn’t adjust as much as we thought rhey would. If we could have scored a few more points then we would have been right beside them,” Wasmann said.
Asked how the team felt scoring 51 points against a tough Colts team.
“We talked about it at the end of the game and we’re still making small mistakes with turnovers and that sort of thing. But right now we’re punishing ourselves by giving them the ball as much as we are.”
The Colts shut the rebounds down and the Vikings made the mistake of thinking they could out jump the Colts but were unable to do it, he said.
“We need to get back to proper boxing out. Understanding how to get positioning and getting those rebounds.first and then worrying about going in the other direction.”
Walker Streuby played a strong game wracking close to 30 points.
“He played a strong game. When we took him off after about a minute or so he’s asking to go back in.”
