The Ballenas Whalers senior varsity football team secured an impressive 57-0 win over the visiting Windsor Dukes in their first AA Coastal Conference game of the season at Ballenas Field on Friday (Sept. 24).
Head coach Jeremy Conn said the hard work the Whalers had put in going into this year’s BC High School Football campaign paid off.
“We were not expecting to dominate this team,” said Conn. “They beat us at juniors a couple of years ago.”
Whalers running back Kooper Chambers set the tone when he scored a 47-yard early touchdown. Brayden Harvey completed a 2-point conversion to put the Whalers ahead 8-0. They went on to score more but they never let up both offensively and defensively.
With a sizable 30-o lead going into the third quarter, Conn gave more playing time for other players and also got their backup quarterbacks a chance to call the shots.
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“Focus is the key word,” said Conn. “Our saying is ‘always down by six.’ We want our players to always play hard but not get injured. It’s a true team win.”
Chambers sparked the offence as he carried the ball nine times for 80 yards while Harvey carried five times and scored two touchdowns. He was also 2-for-2 on two point conversions.
Damon Stone also ran the ball six times for 69 yards and had a 15-yard touchdown. Brayden Jupe, Dylan Vigneault, Cole Chislett and Carter Brett each scored a touchdown.
On defence, Rohan Barlow had five tackles, Will Dubesky had four tackles and a sack, and Mason Muelleder had three tackles and one fumble recovery.
Conn told his players to savour the win but expects them to be back on the field for practice to continue sharpening areas he felt need more improvement.
“We hope to work on basic assignments, alignments and getting better at tackling,” said Conn. “When you get a good victory sometimes you feel too good about yourself and you don’t fix the mistakes that you have to fix every week. We’re proud of our kids but we’ve got to keep getting better.”
The Whalers host the Argyle Pipers at Ballenas field, Sept. 30 at 3:15 p.m. Conn expects this game to be tougher.
“They beat us pretty good at juniors last year,” said Conn. “They’re a good program so it will be a tough match and it will be a good test.”