The Westshore Rebels rode another second-half resurgence in recording a thrilling 29-23 victory over the previously undefeated Okanagan Sun in sa国际传媒 Football Conference play Saturday night at Westhills Stadium.
The victory leaves both teams at 6-1 in the standings and tied in points for and against in the two head-to-head games with three games remaining in the season.
Jamel Lyles scored his second touchdown of the game, from 12 yards out, with 16.1 seconds remaining and the locals added a two-point conversion to give the Rebels the win.
A 70-yard touchdown pass from Ashton Mackinnon to Nathaniel Pinto, a 14-yard TD run from Lyles and a 26-yard field goal by Kyle Clark allowed the Rebels to bounce back from a 10-5 deficit at the half against the defending BCFC champs.
Okanagan had won 24 straight regular-season games, which tells you just how big the win was for Westshore.
鈥淚 really love the way our defence played and the way the offence responded down the stretch. It鈥檚 a great day to be a Rebel,鈥� said elated Westshore head coach J.C. Boice. 鈥淭o stay alive for home-field advantage through the playoffs, we had to win this game.鈥�
The winning scored was set up by a converted third and 12-yard gamble where Mackinnon found Pinto for a big gain inside the Sun 15 yard line with 56.2 seconds to go.
The Sun opened the scoring on a 20-yard swing pass from Foster Martens to Lliam Wishart just over five minutes into the game. The visitors upped it to 10-0 at 10:58 of the opening quarter on a 27-yard field goal by Kealey Heintz.
The Rebels got on the scoreboard on a safety touch at 6:33 of the second quarter and cut it to 10-5 on Clark鈥檚 34-yard field goal after a big Lyles punt return just before the halftime break.
Earlier in the day, the Langley Rams defeated the Vancouver Island Raiders 32-17 on the mainland as Langley improves to 5-2 while the Raiders fall to 3-4.
The Rebels travel to Nanaimo on Saturday in a 2 p.m. game at Caledonia Park.
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