There are a number of story lines heading into tonight鈥檚 game for the Westshore Rebels.
Of course, the club has never defeated its opponent, the Vancouver Island Raiders, since they bolted Victoria and moved to Nanaimo.
Then there is the fact that ex-Raiders鈥� coach Doug Hocking will be facing his former squad as the new Rebels鈥� defensive co-ordinator when the two kick it off at 7 p.m. tonight at Westhills Stadium.
Or the fact that it鈥檚 the Rebels鈥� home opener.
But if there are any thoughts outside of gaining back respect after an awful 78-7 defeat in Kelowna last week, then this organization needs a reality check.
Focus should squarely be on starting this game off on the right foot, unlike last week where it trailed 40-0 after the first quarter 鈥� the game virtually over in the first 10 minutes against a powerful Okanagan Sun team.
The Raiders kicked off their schedule with a 22-14 victory over defending champion Langley Rams, so the threat of another swift kick in the backside is imminent.
鈥淲e must come out and execute. Our execution was very poor last week, as a coaching staff and as a team, so this week there has been a huge emphasis on execution," said Rebels head coach J.C. Boice.
鈥淔ast-starting teams are teams that are executing well. If we don鈥檛 execute, it鈥檚 going to be a long day and if we do, we鈥檒l surprise a lot of people.鈥�
The lopsided loss last week was a surprise to Boice for the fact that one of his teams has never been beaten so handily.
鈥淭hey came ready to play,鈥� he said of the Sun. 鈥淭he first series they dropped an extremely exotic blitz package at us. We just weren鈥檛 ready for it. But we do have 42 first-year players. Somebody told me that鈥檚 a CJFL record. Our kids were unsettled. They jumped on us early.
鈥淥ur kids never stopped; never quit. They never started getting down on themselves or each other, but we were overwhelmed.鈥�
There were a number of issues including just three first downs offensively in the opening half.
Boice鈥檚 quarterbacking by committee failed in the first quarter as starter Hunter Lake immediately threw a pick six. He was replaced by Talyn Davies who then tossed the team鈥檚 second interception which led to another score and the Rebs were instantly down 14-0.
Ashton MacKinnon also failed to move the ball as the three combined to complete just three of 18 passes for 39 yards in the opening half.
Special teams were atrocious and the rushing game was non-existent, aside from the QBs scrambling for their lives. Lake ran for 42 yards on eight carries and MacKinnon had 24 on five hauls.
The Sun ran amok on Hocking鈥檚 defence with 260 rushing yards and 315 passing for 573 net yards of offence. Westshore managed 194, but two-thirds of that came in the second half with Sun backups in the game.
MacKinnon 鈥� who is expected to start tonight 鈥� was 7-of-19 in passing for 92 yards, while Lake was 6-of-9 for just 44 yards, settling down after the bad first half. He moved the club for its only score in the third quarter, a 16-yard TD pass to Alex Wright. Davies was just 2-for-5 for nine yards and the interception.
On the positive, Cohan Sassaman had one sack for the Rebels and Cody Wist had two interceptions. Jordan Goertzen had seven tackles in total, one on special teams.
POINT AFTER: The Rebels announced this week that they will stream their five home games online on a pay-per-view basis beginning tonight. Interested viewers can connect through the team鈥檚 website.
