One of the great beauties of football is the fact that the elements have a way of forcing your hand, of raining down so hard that the message is clear: Strap it up and run.
Yet such atmospheric dictates have never, ever backed Nanaimo’s John Barsby Bulldogs (3-1) into a corner, a fact that head coach Rob Stevenson was proud to trumpet after a extracting a 42-14 win in a AA Coastal clash with the host West Vancouver Highlanders (1-3).
“We were fortunate to come up against an opponent that built their team around its superb passing attack,” remarked Stevenson. “Today, this worked in our favour. The weather was like a 12th player on the field for us.
“It felt just like home out there engaging our opponents in the mud… which is what we work in every day in practice.”
Leading 20-6 at the half, the Bulldogs reeled off 22 more points in the second half before West Vancouver was able to reply with a major and two-point convert of their own.
On the day, Barsby scored on four short running touchdowns, two from running back J.D. Mazur, and one apiece by Carson Corbett-Smith and Colby Fuchs.
Quarterback Parker Moscrip threw a pair of scoring strikes to tight end Ches Rednour-Bruckman.
Defensive back Shamus Inglis, linebacker Ryder Mount and defensive tackle Blevin Arbil shone defensively in a win which allowed Barsby to keep pace with conference front-runners Langley, Robert Bateman and Carson Graham.
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