Young Bulldogs lineup digs deep.<\/p>\n
MOOSE JAW \u2014 Being a returning champ can be tough.<\/p>\n
Being returning champ with a majority of young new players can be tougher.<\/p>\n
Finding a silver lining isn\u2019t easy, but it\u2019s the little things like having fun and enthusiasm to play a full game greeted the Bulldogs on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
The defending U12 champs fell 56 – 0 against the Lions in Kinsmen Moose Jaw Minor Football league action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just another game. Obviously, it\u2019s more sour as it\u2019s a rematch from last year\u2019s championship. We\u2019ve just got to learn and take it as a learning game and move on,\u201d Bulldogs head coach Josh Sigurdson said.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, the young Bulldogs team \u2014 Sigurdson estimates 85 per cent of the team\u2019s players are new this season \u2014 has lots of new talent that just needs development and polishing.<\/p>\n
Despite being dominated by the Lions, the Bulldogs never succumbed to defeatism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want players to lay their heads down, especially in a big game because it\u2019s U12. It\u2019s all about having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter the score, just get out there, do your job and have fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sigurdson said, \u201cI\u2019m super proud the way this team has come in their development.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited for what we have in store.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being largely a class of rookies, he said he is very happy with the players that are coming in for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe quarterback is a rookie, Jensen Alexanderson. On defence, Jace Smith he is flying around. Guys like that are definitely putting the future of the Bulldogs in good hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Lions\u2019 head coach Kellyn Bollinger, the cats are lucky enough to have a good veteran presence this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they stepped up tonight and showed what they could do,\u201d Bollinger said.<\/p>\n
The Lions have ten veterans this season, just shy of 50 per cent of their 24-player roster.<\/p>\n
Having so many veterans return really helps the Lions, especially in key positions, such as quarterback and running backs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose key positions have guys who have done it for a year and kind of got the nerves out of their system; it\u2019s very helpful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Going from a loss last week to the Spartans to a win this week versus the Bulldogs is a full reversal.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not the team they were last week, but also the type of game they played is different, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Bulldogs came out here and gave everything they\u2019ve got. We just had a little bit more success moving the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the game progressed, the Lions would go to the air more than they had in the first half as they tried to get more of their players’ catches in the game.<\/p>\n
Bollinger said he was happy with how the quarterback played, as many passes connected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players are coming along great. This group is giving just an amazing effort every time they step on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young Bulldogs lineup digs deep. MOOSE JAW \u2014 Being a returning champ can be tough. Being returning champ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,73838,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-135866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-moose-jaw","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}