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BCFC Musings

By Blake Roberts, 08/28/17, 6:00PM PDT

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British Columbia Football Conference

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This column is for opinion purposes only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the British Columbia Football Conference or its teams.

 

 

It’s Labour Day weekend coming up, which means that it’s the traditional mid-season bye-week in the BCFC as the teams are all at the 5 game mark. Still a lot of football to be played, but this is junior football where the odds against a major upset occurring are far greater than in the professional ranks. If recent, and in fact distant history are any indication we have a pretty good idea what teams will be hosting play-off games in just over a month. I’m not going out on much of a limb when I suggest the first round of the play-offs will see games in Westshore and Kelowna as the Rebels and Sun, respectively have set themselves up in pretty good shape. Let’s look at our BCFC musings with fall creeping up on us.

 

The teams have two weeks to stew on their last game and depending on how that game went, and where a team sits in the standings, that can be a good or bad thing. So, what might the psyche or head space of the individual teams be at present? Which teams are likely in a happy place or not so much?

In a happy place are the only two teams in control of their own destinies, the 5-0 Sun and 4-1 Rebels. Both these clubs can lay claim to being the class of the conference, the only question being if they are in a 1-2 or 1-1B variety. Personally, I’d place them in the latter. The Sun are 5-0 and its defense is seemingly getting better and better every week, culminating in what really was a beat down of the Raiders in a first place showdown at Caledonia Park Saturday afternoon. The Sun offense might not be scaring anyone but it’s getting the job done and has pretty stellar defensive and special team groups doing their jobs in a major way. The Westshore Rebels conversely, haven’t skipped a beat since a tight loss in the Okanagan on opening day and I’ll venture to guess there isn’t a coach or player in the Rebels organization who doesn’t expect the club to run the table the next 4 games and then beat the Sun to grab first place. Time will tell if they are right or not and while the Rebels didn’t have an overly exceptional outing against the Huskers before the break, staying motivated in a situation like that can be forgiven.

The Langley Rams and Valley Huskers might be feeling a bit ambivalent after their latest games. The Huskers are at 0-5 and logically their only chance to avoid a third straight winless season will come on the last weekend of the season when they host the 1-4 Kamloops Broncos. On the upside, the Huskers showed heart with a capital H against the Rebels Saturday. We all knew that even as they worked to keep the score close it was just a matter of time before the out-manned Huskers were out-scored in lopsided fashion by the Rebels. Still, the players didn’t seem to quit and that’s all that head coach Bob Reist was likely looking for.

The Rams likely limped into Kamloops after losing two straight and faced a Broncos team that would have been buoyed by playing a meaningful game against a perennial play-off team. I for one didn’t feel good about the Rams chances in this one and thought this game might just be the one that slid them out of the play-offs for the first time in decades. Instead, they came out and out- performed the Broncos in all three facets, plus specifically quarterback, which hasn’t been an area of strength, as Ryan Mathers had a solid outing. The Rams even notched their first 3 sacks of the season, which were important against the Broncos QB Colby Henkel. Time will tell if the Rams are a threat come play-off time but this win on the road at least likely placed them there when the second season starts.

In a sour mood with two weeks to recover, or not, are the Kamloops Broncos and VI Raiders. The Broncos, as I said had a big game at home and normally would have been able to count on their always boisterous home fans. But two things likely conspired against them to make for a smaller than average home side. First would have been Conor Macgregor and Floyd Mayweather, as a huge percentage of the sporting world would have been glued to their TV or at a local watering hole to take in the fight, choosing to pass on a night at Hillside. Second, the local football fan might have been footballed out if they attended the exhibition game earlier in the week between UBC and U of A. If a casual football fan, who normally attends Broncos game hit that one first, they might not have opened their wallets for football again a few days later. Regardless of what affect a home crowd had or didn’t on the Broncos performance, they are going to have to pull off a major upset against the Sun, Rebels or Raiders or beat the Rams in Langley by 13 points when these two teams meet again September 16. Either way the odds are stacked against them to see the post season.

The Vi Raiders are the other team in a not so happy place, although they could smell first place heading into Saturday’s showdown with the Sun. If this was a different time the Raiders would have sent the Sun home with their tails between their legs as the Raiders had won 9 straight against the Sun at Caledonia between 2006 and 2013. Recently though, Caledonia Park doesn’t seem to faze the Sun as the visitors have won 4 of the last 5 in the Raiders home. That the Raiders lost this game is one thing, but the 45-11 margin will be in their heads when they make the long road trip to the Okanagan for the rematch in two week.

 

Thanks to long time BCFC member (and former conference President) Paul Shortt for helping the conference out again this past weekend. After serving as colour commentator to conference VP Tyler Mclaren’s play by play a week ago for the Westshore Rebels broadcast, he handled the play by play solo this weekend. That’s never an easy gig, plus Paul isn’t a play by play guy normally, but he is as selfless a volunteer as you will meet. The BCFC is lucky to have Paul, and his wife Karen, who been involved with the conference at various levels for decades and are two of the best people you will ever come across. And no, I’m not just schmoozing Paul in case we need him at the mic again.  Well, maybe I am schmoozing, but the words about what good people he is are true.

 

4 of the 6 CJFL interlocking games between the PFC and OFC have now taken place. This weekend the Saskatoon Hilltops handled the Ottawa Sooners 49-15 and the Regina Thunder blasted the Hamilton Hurricane 61-7. One can assume the Hilltops score was kept in check by a charitable Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant as the score was 35-0 Hilltops early in the second quarter. It was at this point Sargeant began to roll his back-ups in, there are even rumours that the team mascot ‘Topper saw action, although there is no proof of this.

The prairies have now won the 4 games this year against the Ontario conference by a combined 191-29 margin. If anyone knows what this league marketing and promotional exercise cost is, please email me at dieterknowsfootball@hotmail.com. I am sure some of the powers that be in the CJFL are frustrated, likely angry at me for not being more positive about the concept of flying 50 people half way across the country for a regular season game…

I am positive about interlock though. I’m positive it was a bad idea.

 

Enjoy the long weekend folks.