Football is about putting in the work, but it’s also about adjustments and quick fixes.
The Westshore Rebels have adapted to that criteria as they continue to produce strong second halves in a season which now has them tied atop the B.C. Football Conference standings at 6-1 with the Okanagan Sun.
They will attempt to stay there today, but it will take another solid effort as they go hunting for their first-ever win at Caledonia Park against the 3-4 Vancouver Island Raiders, who left town with a bitter taste in their mouths after a 45-22 setback to the Rebels in Week 2.
To compound that, the Raiders have lost three of their last four while the Rebels are on a four-game win streak.
Westshore surrendered just two points in the second half of that first win over VI while scoring 28 of their own to record the historical victory after going 0-23 against the Raiders. Last week they out-legged the Sun 24-13 in the second half for a 29-23 victory.
“You prepare so much before a game, but it’s totally different when you get in there. Up to the game you can only prepare on what they’ve done in the past, so you can’t prepare for what they’re doing at that exact time,” said Rebels quarterback Ashton Mackinnon, who engineered the comeback on offence.
“When you go into halftime, every team makes those adjustments, but for us we react to those changes better and I think we just have that juice in the second half. I don’t know what it is, but there are also things coaches see and that’s credit to our staff. I think they see more things than most.”
Mackinnon was a big part of it last week, finishing 15-of-28 in passing for 262 yards and added 85 yards along the ground on 10 carries as the Rebels took what the Sun gave. His favourite target through the air was Nathaniel Pinto who hauled in four passes for 149 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown strike and a key third-down gamble to set up the win.
The six-foot-seven Mackinnon scrambled on the gamble, as he had done all night against the Sun, keeping the defence on its toes.
Now the Rebels will attempt to do what they’ve never done before, win in Nanaimo where they are 0-11. Mackinnon didn’t play at Caledonia last year due to injury, but he wasn’t biting much on how big the win would be as the rivalry continues this afternoon at 2 p.m.
“Every week we try to go 1-0, but beating the Okanagan Sun, they are always a powerhouse, so it definitely gives us momentum, especially heading down the backstretch,” said Mackinnon, who saw little action in the first meeting against the Raiders this season as Scott Borden played QB.
“We need to execute everything right. Obviously, penalties are still a killer for us, so we have to eliminate those as much as we can, and the mental errors,” offered Mackinnon.
Defensively, the Rebels also need to clamp down, as they have been doing in second halves.
“The defence is really amping up their game, which is what you need right now,” added Mackinnon.
EXTRA POINTS: Pinto was named BCFC offensive player of the week for his efforts. … Nate Skeete was the receiver who hauled in the two-point conversion in the dying seconds last week after Jamel Lyles scored the winning touchdown. The two points left the Rebels tied at 1-1 with the Sun this year and also knotted up evenly on points for and against. … The Sun play the Saskatoon Hilltops in an inter-conference game, while the Valley Huskers take on the Winnipeg Rifles.
