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Sun vs Raiders Preview

By Larry Fisher-Kelowna Daily Courier, 09/09/17, 8:00AM PDT

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The Okanagan Sun are hoping to pick up where they left off, coming out of the B.C. Football Conference’s bye week to start the second half of the season by hosting a rematch with the Vancouver Island Raiders (3-2) on Sunday afternoon.

That would mean hitting the ground running — quite literally — with the unbeaten Sun (5-0) outgaining the Raiders 163-30 on the ground in Okanagan’s 45-11 victory at Nanaimo on Aug. 26 just before the break.

Prior to that, Vancouver Island had been averaging 201 rushing yards per game, while the Sun matched their average from the first four games — thanks, in part, to the return of Brendan Hansen, who made his season debut after recovering from an undisclosed injury. Hansen had most of his touches in the second half as Okanagan pulled away in the fourth quarter.

“We saw that he can be a workhorse and run people over,” Sun head coach Ben Macauley said of Hansen, who chewed up 32 yards on eight carries. “On one play, he broke two or three tackles with no helmet on. He’s just a tough, tough kid. He’s gained a lot of muscle in this off-season, and to have him healthy again, it’s really going to help us heading into the second part of the season when the running game really wears teams down.”

It was a balanced attack out of the backfield for Okanagan, with fellow sophomore Kelton Kouri and rookie Robbie Rodrigues each taking eight hand-offs as well — rushing for 37 and 51 yards, respectively. Joseph Okunlola, another newcomer, has also had some shining moments for the Sun, including a two-touchdown, 133-yard performance in a Week 4 blowout against Chilliwack.

“We’ve got four guys rotating through there, carrying the football, and all of them are capable of being starters,” Macauley said. “That’s a problem for us, as coaches, in figuring out how to best dole that out.

“Credit to Mike Wolthuizen, our offensive coordinator, he’s done a really good job of keeping a number of guys in the mix,” Macauley added. “We’re not running anything that fancy, but our offensive line has stepped up big-time and made some great holes.”

Entering Week 6 — with Sunday’s kickoff set for 1 p.m. at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna — the Sun are ranked third in rushing yards per game (164) behind the defending champion Westshore Rebels (172) and the Raiders (167).

Historically, the Sun have been more of a pass-heavy team, but not this season — not yet anyway.

That may still change, with Okanagan’s receiving corps getting some reinforcements for the second half.

Shamar Donelson dressed but didn’t catch a pass in his season debut at Nanaimo — the fourth-year player was a starter last season and expected to be a standout this year.

The Sun are also getting back a gamebreaker in Rashaun Simonise, who first arrived last September after being released by the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.

The now-22-year-old played in three regular-season games last year, along with one playoff game, recording a total of 12 catches for 265 yards and one touchdown. The former University of Calgary Dino, who was benched for the BCFC championship game, also returned six kickoffs and 13 punts — averaging 20.5 and 7.4 yards, respectively.

Simonise, a potential ringer at this level, has rejoined the team but will be a game-time decision for Okanagan on Sunday.

“The reason that’s so important is it just flushes out our depth so much, and we have the opportunity to keep fresh legs in,” Macauley said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who are veterans with experience and also new guys who had a chance to step in right away and build some skills.

“We have to start, at this point, looking at what our playoff roster is going to look like,” he continued, “and that’s going to make our job difficult as a coaching staff, but it’s a good problem to have.

“It’s nice to have guys healthy again, if nothing more than to give these guys a chance to show what they’re capable of.”

Meanwhile, there could be a quarterback controversy brewing for Okanagan.

Keith Zyla, the incumbent who platooned with Foster Martens last year, declared himself healthy and was cleared by doctors prior to the game in Nanaimo, according to the team’s radio broadcast.

However, the Sun stuck with backup Nick Wenman, who shook off an apparent injury near the end of the first half, returning to throw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter — both to Liam Crane.

Wenman finished 11-of-20 passing for 205 yards, with those two late TDs and no interceptions in making his fourth straight start — all impressive victories.

Wenman did miss a few series to start the third quarter, with Nate Anderson — a sophomore receiver and punt returner — filling in at quarterback while Wenman recovered on the sideline.

Afterwards, Macauley updated Zyla’s status.

“There’s no controversy,” Macauley said. “We had a little setback with Keith and his health, so we didn’t want to put him in too early. He’s not 100 per cent healthy. He’s got the clearance from the doctors, but there’s still some major bruising going on that is making it difficult for him to play his game.

“It’s a lower-body injury and his strength is the ability to beat you on the pass and probably more so in the run game. And if he doesn’t have that as his strength, it really changes what we do as play-callers,” Macauley added. “So we’re going to give him time to be 100 per cent before he comes back. We have to consider his career goals as well — we want to be competitive and want to win, but we also don’t want to damage a young man’s future by putting him in too early.”

Zyla hasn’t played since a season-opening 19-15 win over Westshore on July 29.

In his absence, Wenman has been doing his best to create a controversy. He has the best completion percentage among BCFC starters, at 62.2, and is tied for the conference lead with 10 touchdown passes. Wenman has only thrown two interceptions through four games — second fewest among starters, behind Westshore’s Scott Borden (one) — and Wenman also ranks second in total passing yards (934) behind Vancouver Island’s Jake Laberge (1,165), who has started one more game than Wenman. Their passing yards per game are nearly identical, with Wenman having a slight edge at 233.5 to Laberge’s 233.0.

“Nick’s doing a great job, he’s got complete support of our staff and our team in his continued excellent decision-making,” Macauley said of Wenman, who was a third-stringer for the Sun last season. “He’s a veteran guy who is sort of a rookie on the field, so we expect some mistakes, but even if you look at his numbers, he’s been doing pretty well. He’s doing a lot of things right, so we’re happy with Nick, and if Keith comes back 100 per cent (this week), then he’ll be right at the top of the pile.

“We’ll play it by ear, could see another week of Nick when V.I. comes back here, but we’ll work our best to get Keith ready to play.”

That sure sounds like a controversy in the making, but Macauley didn’t seem concerned.

“The nice thing about both these guys is their main concern is winning,” the coach said. “They support each other. Keith is Nick’s biggest fan on the sideline and vice versa. They both cheer each other on pretty well.”

EXTRA POINTS: Also this week, the Sun retained their No. 2 ranking in the Canadian Junior Football League’s Top 10 — behind only the Saskatoon Hilltops, who are undefeated through three games in the Prairie conference. The Rebels (4-1) are at No. 4 and the Raiders are No. 10.