More Winners and Losers

A loss is a loss and a win is a win on the field. But there are times a win is bigger than another, while a loss can sometimes cut just a little deeper.

“More Winners and Losers” looks at those situations on a weekly basis in the British Columbia Football Conference.

Saturday’s BCFC action answered one of the three remaining questions in the BCFC. What team will finish first overall is out of the way. Second spot and the question of whether or not the Huskers go winless two straight seasons will be settled on the final weekend.

Let’s take a look at the winners and losers from week 9.

Winner

Westshore Rebels

In pre-season interviews Rebels head coach JC Boice and assistant head coach Shane Beatty were a confident pair. If they appeared a bit too sure of themselves that all changed a few days before the season when the rumoured Jamel Lyles signing came to fruition. That likely made BCFC watchers take notice.

Fast forward to week 9 and the road to the Cullen Cup and Canadian Bowl hosting rights go through their park.

The running game proved in the win over the Langley Rams it isn’t ready to slow down after a couple of quieter than normal weeks.  Recently anointed full time starting quarterback Ashton Mackinnon is proving that the club is in good hands with him at the helm. The monster quarterback is a problem in many areas for a defense as he proved to the Langley Rams with his own long run to seal the victory Saturday. The two headed headed rushing monster is morphing.

And let’s not forget the speedster Nathaniel Pinto who makes concentrating on the run a dangerous proposition.

Loser

Okanagan Sun

What is wrong with the football team in Kelowna?

After the huge loss in the crossover game to the Saskatoon Hilltops, most expected the team to bounce back against the Raiders.

The offense wasn’t able to get any traction and has now just one touchdown to show through 9 quarters of football going back to the loss to the Rebels that began the skid. Interesting that in a recent story in the Goldstream News Gazette, Westshore Rebels head coach asserted that his club “broke the Sun” in that game.

The Sun took 32 penalties for an incredible 231 yards against the Raiders, many of the unsportsmanlike variety. One long time BCFC observer said it didn’t look like any Sun team he had seen in the past 30 years

The Sun have a big chance for redemption this weekend in a massive game with the Langley Rams. A win and they are at home for the play-offs with the chance to turn their season back in the right direction. Another loss and it’s hard for anyone to imagine the Sun not going out in the first round.

Winner

VI Raiders

Three weeks ago the VI Raiders were sitting at 3-4. Of their three remaining games, two were against the Rebels and Sun and with the club already being 0-4 against those clubs and the also play-off bound Langley Rams. The Raiders were staring at a losing season for the first time in the club’s history.

That seems so long ago now…

They followed up the tie with the Rebels with a solid win over the Sun. The stifling Doug Hocking led defense forced 4 Sun turnovers plus another 3 on downs.

They will be big underdogs in round one when they travel to Langford to take on the Rebels but don’t count this surging team out.

Loser

Langley Rams

Almost feel guilty putting the Rams here this week. They played a whale of a game against the first place Rebels. Losing that game in itself is nothing to hang a head over.

Still, first place was lost when they came out on the short end of this one. That makes this loss sting.

This column does not represent the views of the BCFC. It is a column for conversation purposes by Blake Roberts of the BCFC