WESTSHORE 33
LANGLEY 28
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Head coach Charly Cardilicchia鈥檚 concerns about Saturday afternoon鈥檚 sa国际传媒 Football Conference matchup in Langley being a possible trap game rang true to his words in the first half at McLeod Athletic Park.
Down 27-11 to the host Rams at the midway mark, the Westshore Rebels stormed back for a 33-28 victory to improve to 7-1 on the season and maintain a team goal of finishing first overall.
The defending Cullen Cup champion Rebels are currently in second place behind the Okanagan Sun, which defeated the Kamloops Broncos 20-10 on Saturday night to improve to 7-0-1. Langley evens its record to 4-4 to sit in fourth place behind the Vancouver Island Raiders at 4-3-1.
Receiver D鈥橲aun Greenaway recorded his second touchdown of the game and running back Trey Campbell and quarterback Scott Borden Jr. added one major score apiece in the pivotal second half for Westshore. Kicker Kyle Clark added a 35-yard field goal in the first half for the visitors, who once again ran into penalty trouble.
鈥淭hey do everything they can, our reputation proceeds us and I don鈥檛 think they call the games totally fair. It is what it is, though, and we鈥檙e 7-1,鈥� said Cardilicchia. 鈥淲e just came back from down 16 points in the second half and we just did what we had to do.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important when you can win games like that, with all the ups and the downs on the sidelines,鈥� he added, of the emotional highs and lows. 鈥淚 know it鈥檚 not pretty, but these types of wins galvanize us 鈥� it battle-tests us. All these things that we overcome, with suspensions and penalties, are important.
鈥淲e are what we are. We have a lot of personality and the truth is, our energy can be really good and sometimes it can be bad, but for the most part, it鈥檚 starting to bond us.
鈥淲e鈥檙e starting to have experiences and when you have experiences, you start to gain trust. When you have trust, you start to love each other and this team is starting to love each other and the truth is, it loves to win,鈥� stressed Cardilicchia.
Overcoming these adversities and embracing the struggles the team has gone through only makes the team that much stronger, he explained.
鈥淵eah, we have to clean some stuff up. Yeah, we average 20 penalties a game, but we鈥檝e won seven in a row to go to 7-1 and we鈥檙e about to go 8-1 and then 9-1 and we鈥檙e about to take this conference. That鈥檚 the bottom line,鈥� said Cardilicchia, unafraid to throw out bulletin board material.
The adversities this past week were the loss of four of the team鈥檚 top five receivers as Birhanu Yitna was out on a two-game suspension; Austin Lindo-Brow had a one-game suspension and Kaine Stevenson and Nate Skeete were out due to injuries.
鈥淲e went out and made things happen like it was nothing,鈥� said Cardilicchia. 鈥淵eah, there were a couple of hiccups, but our first drive Scott Borden was 4-for-4 (in passing) down the field, and D鈥橲aun Greenaway was fantastic for us today.
鈥淐oming back from down 16 points is not an easy thing to do. On two of their drives we gave up 90 penalty yards.鈥�
Meanwhile, the Vancouver Island Raiders pulled off a comeback win of their own, rebounding from a 20-18 deficit at the half to defeat the winless Chilliwack Huskers 44-27 at Caledonia Park in Nanaimo.
Westshore travels to Chilliwack this week before closing out its regular season at home on Oct. 7 against the Sun. The Raiders travel to Kamloops next week while Okanagan plays host to Langley.
