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The sa国际传媒 Football Conference win streak is over at four games, but the Westshore Rebels remain undefeated in five as they were forced to settle on a 25-25 tie against the Vancouver Island Raiders at Caledonia Park on a wet Saturday afternoon.
Westshore now sits at 6-1-1 on the season while the Raiders, who had lost three of their last four, sit at 3-4-1 on the campaign.
The Rebels have never won at Caledonia Park and are now 0-11-1 in Nanaimo.
Another streak ended as it was the first time this season that the Rebels were out-scored in the second half, failing to hang on to a 17-12 lead at the break.
But quarterback Ashton Mackinnon ran in from one yard out and then connected with Nathaniel Pinto on a two-point conversion to salvage the critical point with just over two minutes remaining. The Raiders then missed a 45-yard field goal for the win in the dying seconds.
鈥淚 was concerned about that game, we were real sick this week. We were tight-lipped about it, but I was worried,鈥� said Rebels head coach J.C. Boice. 鈥淲e let them take the lead from us and we really had to press.
鈥淚 give the Raiders credit. Their kids were spirited and they presented interesting looks for us.鈥�
Jake Laberge and Nathan Berg had scored one-yard TD runs for the Raiders as they bounced back from the halftime deficit.
The Rebels trailed 4-0 and 5-3 in a defensive tussle until Mackinnon and Pinto, who were instrumental in last week鈥檚 win over the Okanagan Sun, broke it open with a pair of second-quarter touchdowns, the second was a 70-yard catch and run play. That gave Westshore a 17-5 advantage.
The home side responded to cut it to 17-12 at the half and added a field goal early in the third quarter to close it even further at 17-15 before pouncing in the second half.
It went against the trend the Rebels had established.
How good have the Rebels been in second-halves this season? They had out-scored their competition by exactly a 2-to-1 margin, 166 to 83 previous to the tie.
Included in that margin was a 28-2 second-half performance against the same Raiders in Week 2鈥檚 45-22 win at Westhills Stadium, the first time the Rebels had defeated VI since the organization moved up Island out of Victoria.
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