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Westshore Rebels storm back to subdue Langley Rams

By MARIO ANNICCHIARICO-Victoria Times Colonist, 09/24/17, 7:45AM PDT

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Head coach Charly Cardilicchia’s concerns about Saturday afternoon’s B.C. Football Conference matchup in Langley being a possible trap game rang true to his words in the first half at McLeod Athletic Park.

 

Down 27-11 to the host Rams at the midway mark, the Westshore Rebels stormed back for a 33-28 victory to improve to 7-1 on the season and maintain a team goal of finishing first overall.

The defending Cullen Cup champion Rebels are currently in second place behind the Okanagan Sun, which defeated the Kamloops Broncos 20-10 on Saturday night to improve to 7-0-1. Langley evens its record to 4-4 to sit in fourth place behind the Vancouver Island Raiders at 4-3-1.

Receiver D’Saun Greenaway recorded his second touchdown of the game and running back Trey Campbell and quarterback Scott Borden Jr. added one major score apiece in the pivotal second half for Westshore. Kicker Kyle Clark added a 35-yard field goal in the first half for the visitors, who once again ran into penalty trouble.

“They do everything they can, our reputation proceeds us and I don’t think they call the games totally fair. It is what it is, though, and we’re 7-1,” said Cardilicchia. “We just came back from down 16 points in the second half and we just did what we had to do.

“It’s important when you can win games like that, with all the ups and the downs on the sidelines,” he added, of the emotional highs and lows. “I know it’s not pretty, but these types of wins galvanize us — it battle-tests us. All these things that we overcome, with suspensions and penalties, are important.

“We are what we are. We have a lot of personality and the truth is, our energy can be really good and sometimes it can be bad, but for the most part, it’s starting to bond us.

“We’re starting to have experiences and when you have experiences, you start to gain trust. When you have trust, you start to love each other and this team is starting to love each other and the truth is, it loves to win,” stressed Cardilicchia.

Overcoming these adversities and embracing the struggles the team has gone through only makes the team that much stronger, he explained.

“Yeah, we have to clean some stuff up. Yeah, we average 20 penalties a game, but we’ve won seven in a row to go to 7-1 and we’re about to go 8-1 and then 9-1 and we’re about to take this conference. That’s the bottom line,” said Cardilicchia, unafraid to throw out bulletin board material.

The adversities this past week were the loss of four of the team’s top five receivers as Birhanu Yitna was out on a two-game suspension; Austin Lindo-Brow had a one-game suspension and Kaine Stevenson and Nate Skeete were out due to injuries.

“We went out and made things happen like it was nothing,” said Cardilicchia. “Yeah, there were a couple of hiccups, but our first drive Scott Borden was 4-for-4 (in passing) down the field, and D’Saun Greenaway was fantastic for us today.

“Coming back from down 16 points is not an easy thing to do. On two of their drives we gave up 90 penalty yards.”

Meanwhile, the Vancouver Island Raiders pulled off a comeback win of their own, rebounding from a 20-18 deficit at the half to defeat the winless Chilliwack Huskers 44-27 at Caledonia Park in Nanaimo.

Westshore travels to Chilliwack this week before closing out its regular season at home on Oct. 7 against the Sun. The Raiders travel to Kamloops next week while Okanagan plays host to Langley.