Staff reporter
After dropping their season opener to the Buck Mountain Central Mustangs by a score of 38-14, the Rimbey Spartans responded in a big way in their first home game of the new high school football season and unfortunately for the Ponoka Broncs, they were on the receiving end as the Spartans went on an offensive tear coming up with a 49-28 victory in front of a large crowd last Thursday afternoon.
But the game certainly didn’t start out that way as the Broncs returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and an early lead, but it was all downhill from their for the Ponoka squad as the Spartans replied with two touchdowns of their own on successive possessions.
“It actually tuned out pretty well for us I think. We lack a lot of experience but I tell the guys that each week we have to get a little bit better,” said head coach Bill Bramfield. “Defensively, it was a big turnaround and we made lots of stops and obviously our offense has a lot of weapons and so it was kind of evident when we were able to put some points up on the board.”
Despite the fact the Spartans gave up an early lead, Bramfield said it was encouraging to see his team rebound in a big way.
“You never want to start a football game like that and after coming off a loss with some guys in their first year of football and starting their first game, I was kind of curious about how the guys would respond,” he said. “Our emotion was up all week and we felt pretty confident after a good week of practice. A play like that could have taken the wind out of our sails, so I was interested to see how the offense was going to respond, and they moved the ball quite well in the first series of plays and it swung the momentum back and at that point, I knew we were okay.”
With just three players returning from last year’s team, Bramfield said he plans on mixing up his offense a bit more to spread the ball out.
“I think our offense is going to be pretty dynamic as the season goes along because we have a lot of weapons,” he said. “Last year we tended to focus on a couple of big players and big playmakers and things like that, but this year I think we’re a little more diverse so we’re going to be tough to stop.”
Next up for the Spartans is a trip to Caroline this coming Thursday where they’ll square off against the Cougars before their next home game the following week against the Millwoods Royals of Edmonton.