The St. Albert Storm limp into their last game of the year after disappointing back-to-back shutout losses.
The Storm (1-2-1) are coming off a 14-0 defeat Saturday against the Edmonton Chargers (3-1) at Clarke Park. The previous week in St. Albert they suffered a 28-0 setback against the Edmonton Mustangs (4-0), last year’s tier I champions in midget spring league football.
“It’s frustrating,” said slotback Rocky Borrelli “We’ve just got to function as a team in order to do better.”
The tier II playoff between the third-place Storm and fourth-place Parkland Predators (1-3) kicks off Saturday afternoon at Johnny Bright Park but the start time was unavailable at press time.
Last month the Storm rallied to defeat Parkland 9-7 in Spruce Grove.
“We’re looking forward to the game,” Borrelli said. “We’ve just got to go out there and perform. We have to get our passing game going early so the running backs can perform. When the running game opens up, the passing game opens up.”
Against the Chargers the Storm surrendered two touchdown passes. One was tipped and the unintended receiver made a heads-up play to catch it for six points.
Dallas Moroz, the Storm’s quarterback, also picked off a pass at safety but was banged up on the play. He was replaced at quarterback by Matteo Sestito in the fourth quarter. Sestito gave the offence a spark with his arm and legs to move the ball down field.
Robert Blunden did most of the damage on the ground in spearheading the running attack.
“The first half we did all right. We went into the locker room and the coaches talked and we figured we had to pick it up in the second half. We went out there and performed. We got our passing game going, which opened up the running game, and the team performed as a team,” said Borrelli, 16.
He was Storm’s top receiver with four grabs for 80 yards.
“In the fourth quarter, when we needed long drives, I was getting those Hail Mary passes,” said the Grade 10 St. Albert Catholic High School student who played for the junior Hawks last year.
This is the second year in a row the Storm will compete for tier II honours. The team of Grade 9, 10 and 11 players placed fourth out of seven teams in the tier I/II division in 2010. In the final they beat the Chargers 29-22 in an overtime shootout to finish 4-2-1 with four straight wins.
In 2009 the Storm won the tier III final while going 3-4 overall.
