Despite a convincing 56-30 victory of the hometown Olds Bulldogs over the Drumheller Titans in Central Alberta Football League action on Saturday, there is still room for improvement in the ‘dogs play, says coach Neil Skaluba.
The Bulldogs sit fifth in the standings, with Olds squaring off against the Lacombe Raiders Saturday in the quarter-finals.
“It's been a bit of a herky-jerky season,” Skaluba said, adding that although the Bulldogs came away with a victory on Saturday, fundamentals will have to improve if the team wants to go deep in the playoffs.
“Drumheller … had some strength, but overall they're kind of what I predicted. They weren't really that strong and they hadn't played many strong teams in the league and so we just threw the ball … and were successful,” Skaluba said.
Skaluba pointed to several players who admirably filled in at quarterback, including DJ Neustaeter who finished off four of the Bulldogs' scoring drives on the day.
“Right now (Neustaeter) is our top player for sure,” he said. “We had four different quarterbacks (on Saturday) and they all stepped up and did a good job and scored some points, made some nice passes.”
Neustaeter got the Bulldogs on the board about two minutes and 30 seconds into the game when he returned a Titans' punt about 55 yards for a touchdown. About two minutes later, Neustaeter caught a pass from Nils Haeni and ran about 30 yards into the end zone to make it 14-0 Bulldogs.
Ryland Couture also had a good game for the Bulldogs, running three balls into the end zone for touchdowns, including two of 55 and 60 yards respectively. The latter of the three nearly put a bow on the game, making the score 50-22.
"Right now ( DJ Neustaeter) is our top player for sure."Neil Skaluba, coach, Olds Bulldogs
