Three weeks into the B.C. Football Conference season, the Okanagan Sun are the only unbeaten team. However, Sun players have yet to win a BCFC weekly award.
For the third straight week, the Sun (3-0) were snubbed of the individual player awards for offence, defence and special teams despite winning their first-place showdown and home opener, 27-21 over the Westshore Rebels (2-1) from Victoria, on Saturday night at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna.
Okanagan running back Brendan Hansen would have been a worthy recipient on offence after racking up 156 all-purpose yards, including 99 on 18 carries and 56 on five receptions out of the backfield — highlighted by a 13-yard touchdown catch to open the scoring.
Instead that award went to Valley Huskers receiver Michael West for his breakout performance in a lopsided loss, 55-24 to the host Vancouver Island Raiders (2-1) in Nanaimo. The Huskers (0-3) shockingly jumped out to a 17-0 lead thanks in large part to West, who caught nine passes for 173 yards and two touchdowns.
Hansen was likely the runner-up but probably deserved the honour based on the respective team results and the magnitude of Okanagan’s matchup.
Sun defensive back Raquille Cespedes also made a strong case for the special-teams award by returning a missed field goal 120 yards for a score that pushed Okanagan’s lead to 17-0 in the second quarter. Cespedes is proving to be an impact player in his sophomore season and had an interception on the night as well, though that contribution would have counted toward the defensive award.
Regardless, it wasn’t enough for Cespedes, as the BCFC named Langley Rams kicker Tiernan Docherty the top special teams player for the second straight week. Docherty was a perfect 6-for-6 on converts and 3-for-3 on field goals, including a 50-yarder in Langley’s 51-7 blowout of the Kamloops Broncos.
On defence, it was a collective effort for the Sun to contain conference-leading rusher Jamel Lyles, limiting the former CIS standout to 121 yards and just one touchdown on 13 carries. That was the difference in the game, but no Okanagan defender stood out from his peers in terms of a dominant stat-line.
The defensive award actually went to Westshore lineman Kent Hicks, who totalled five tackles, one assist and one sack in a losing effort. A Rebels player has now earned that honour for three weeks running, despite the BCFC noting in its release that the “Sun won the line of scrimmage” in Saturday’s triumph.
Okanagan will gladly take that win on the scoreboard and look forward to hosting the rival Raiders this Saturday in another 7 p.m. kickoff at the Apple Bowl.
Still, it seems strange that the accolades aren’t accompanying those victories.
Going back to Week 1 and Okanagan’s 56-14 season-opening rout of the Huskers in Chilliwack on July 23, Sun quarterback Keith Zyla completed all four of his passes for 174 yards and three touchdowns. Zyla recorded a season-best QB rating of 158.3 that will be tough for anybody to top the rest of the way, but that offensive award went to Langley receiver Khalik Johnson, who caught 10 passes for 158 yards and two TDs in a loss to Westshore.
Zyla wasn’t nearly as accurate against the Rebels, completing just 4-of-10 passes for 51 yards, while Foster Martens had his best showing in a Sun uniform with 13 completions on 18 attempts for 186 yards and the aforementioned touchdown toss to Hansen. Martens’ rating of 123.8 was well short of Zyla’s debut benchmark.
Ironically, the Sun and Raiders will both be looking to earn their first BCFC awards this Saturday, with the winless Broncos (0-3) the only other team to be blanked thus far. The Rebels lead the way, having won five of the nine awards to date, with the Rams winning three and the Huskers just one.
