LANGLEY 33 WESTSHORE 0
What started on a positive note ended badly for the Westshore Rebels on Saturday afternoon, shut out 33-0 by the Langley Rams in the second sa国际传媒 Football Conference semifinal of the day.
Attempting to keep the ball out of dangerous kick returner Nick Downey's hands, the visiting Rebels - 7-3 in regular-season play - began the game with a successful onside kick.
Ultimately, Downey caught up to the visitors, much to the delight of the McLeod Stadium faithful who turned out to support their 7-2-1 Rams.
Downey - a BCFC all-star at both receiver and returner - took a missed Quinn Van Gylswyk field goal 118 yards for a major score in the second quarter to break open what was just a 4-0 Langley lead at the time. Downey established a new Canadian Junior Football League post-season record with the romp as the Rams opened up an 11-0 advantage at the half.
"We missed the field goal by two feet and instead of a 4-3 game it becomes 11-0. It was a huge momentum swing," said Rebels' president Roger Wade. "We were where we wanted to be at halftime, in a close game. Our defence played a great game. Unfortunately, we gave up some late points."
Nick Naylor's field goal and a single opened the scoring for the Rams in a defensive battle that stood just 1-0 after the first quarter. A Westshore turnover early in second half and another good Downey return led to two more Naylor field goals to extend the Rams' lead to 17-0.
The Rebels conceded a safety touch to give Langley a 19-0 lead early in the fourth quarter and the hosts then clinched it with run-ningback Daniel Xavier's one-yard score, set up by a pair of Greg Bowcott completions to Michael Patko.
Bowcott and Patko capped it with a touchdown completion on a late third-down gamble, which led to some mayhem with a near brawl that broke out afterwards.
In the end, it was a disappointing end to the season.
"We had a lot of positives this year. Unfortunately, it didn't end the way we wanted it to," said Wade. "We didn't execute the game plan."
The Rams will now travel to Nanaimo this coming Saturday to face the Vancouver Island Raiders who came back to score 31 unanswered points to defeat the Okanagan Sun 34-8 earlier Saturday afternoon. Quarterback Jordan Yantz threw for two touchdowns and added two more rushing in the victory.
The Raiders will be looking for their seventh straight Cullen Cup championship.
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