Saturday marks an end to our first week of the B.C. High School Football Report.
SATURDAY
EXHIBITION
ST. FRANCIS (Calg.) 37 at No. 2 MT. DOUGLAS 0
VICTORIA —They are No. 2 at the highest tier of competition in Alberta, and on Saturday, Tier 1 No. 1-ranked St. Francis of Calgary proved too much for the host and B.C. Triple A No. 2-ranked Mt. Douglas Rams to handle.
“Our players played well early on, forced some turnovers but we missed on some opportunities after moving the ball, and then St. Francis took over,” said Rams head coach Mark Townsend, as the B.C.’s reigning Triple A Subway Bowl champions opened their 2019 campaign.
“They are a great program and are very well coached,” added Townsend. “When you add in talented players, great discipline and tremendous depth, you have something special. We wish St. Francis continued success with the rest of their season.”
Cole Bunting led the Rams’ defense with eight tackles, followed by Kai Harris who had five tackles plus one interception, and Jackson Reid who chipped with four tackles and a sack.
Joe Lucas was another bright spot for the Rams defense, with three tackles and two interceptions. Lucas also hauled in four passes for 64 yards.
“As we told the players after the game, losing is part of the process for improvement, and we will roll up our sleeves and continue to work hard to improve in all areas starting on Monday,” added Townsend.
TERRY FOX 0 at No. 5 SOUTH DELTA 37
TSAWWASSEN — A healthy Ben McDonald is synonymous with a happy South Delta Sun Devils football team.
In his first game since exiting last season’s Subway Bowl quarterfinal with a broken thumb on his throwing hand, the quarterback extraordinaire opened his senior campaign with a statement performance.
McDonald threw four touchdown passes and am pair of two-point coverts, and even called his own number for another as No. 5 South Delta topped a young crew of Terry Fox Ravens from Port Coquitlam 37-0 in the non-conference season opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon.
“He is cool under pressure, he is very elusive in the pocket and he can scramble right to the line of scrimmage and still find his targets down field, which he proved time and time again today,” said Sun Devils head coach Ray Moon.
In the first quarter, McDonald connected with receiver Jackson Bailie for a five-yard touchdown and a 6-0 lead.
Soon after, Bailie came up with an interception, and early in the second quarter, it set the table for the Sun Devils to score off a 20-yard McDonald run to the end zone.
The pivot then tossed a two-point convert pass to Evan Paterson for a 14-0 lead.
Before the half, McDonald tossed a five-yard scoring strike to Rhys Porteous, and the Sun Devils made it 22-0 when McDonald added a two-point covert pass to Ethan Troniak.
McDonald, forced to play the entire game because the Sun Devils’ only back-up quarterback suffered an injury earlier in the week, kept it going in the second half.
First he tossed a 20-yard scoring strike to Paterson in the third, then a 15-yard scoring pass to Porteous in the fourth.
Adam Hoegg, South Delta’s starting middle linebacker, ran in a two-point convert while Paterson kicked a single to cap the scoring.
Hoegg also led the team in tackles.
“Fox was fighting the entire way,” said Moon. “They are well-coached, disciplined and it was hard to get anything on those guys. They fought right to the bitter end.”
FRIDAY
SEAQUAM 14 at OAK HARBOR (Wash.) 29
OAK HARBOR (Wash.) — Quarterback Jay Mather threw touchdown passes to Brandon Johnson and Xavier Cole, finishing his night with 134 all-purpose yards as North Delta’s Seahawks faced a familiar stateside foe.
“It was our second straight year facing Oak Harbor and tonight was a much closer game,” said Seahawks’ head coach Navin Chand whose crew found themselves on a the short end of a 48-19 spanking last season. “The atmosphere was electric and our boys played hard from start to finish.”
Johnson finished with eight catches for 88 yards while Justin Eng carried 13 times for 81 yards out of the offensive backfield, adding a team-leading eight tackles on the other side of the ball. Cole had seven stops, Corbin Grant five tackles and an interception, and Taaj Jhooty three tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery.
EARL MARRIOTT 14 at CHARLES WRIGHT (Wash.) 21
UNIVERSITY PLACE (Wash.) — Trailing by what would be the final score, Earl Marriott’s Jacob Diamond-Doucette recovered a fumble and raced to the opposition 30-yard line with less than a minute left in the game, however the Mariners comeback stalled on the eight-yard line as the game clock expired Friday night at Tacoma’s Charles Wright Terriers.
“We need to work on the basics with an emphasis on ball security but it was a great experience for our kids,” said Mariners head coach Michael MacKay-Dunn. “We had some injuries to some key players and the younger kids stepped up, so I was proud of our group for fighting hard through adversity.”
Marriott’s Sam La Rue through a 30-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Baker while Byron Ruvalcaba, Diamond-Doucette, Matt Harvey and Ruhun Purewal made their defensive presence felt.
CLARENCE FULTON 14 at RUTLAND 52
KELOWNA —Jhavoun Blake has picked up right where he left off last season.
The 2018 Grade 11 Offensive Player of the Year had just six touches on Friday, but scored four touchdohttps://varsityletters.ca/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=10534&type=image&TB_iframe=1wns, each in a different way.
Blake scored an 83-yard rushing major, caught a 35-yard pass for a score, returned an interception 62 yards for a touchdown and returned a punt 60 yards to the house.
Blake rushed the ball three times for 101 yards on the game.
Grade 11 pivot Liam Attwood went 9-of-10 for 155 yards and threw two touchdown passes to Kyron Konkin and one each to Blake and Brad Koebeapiece.
Other defensive standouts included Dan Tran with seven tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery, and Prince Manongdo with five tackles and a sack.
For Clarence Fulton, quarterback Dom Peterson went 16-of-35 for 203 yards and touchdown passes of 30 yards to Colby Eisenhauer and 40 yards to Liam Davidson.
“We need to play tougher and be tougher mentally,” said Fulton head coach Mike Scheller. “We gave up a lot of big plays today in all three phases.”
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