The Ballenas Whalers high school football teams encountered some resistance on the road.
The Senior Varsity Whalers got to test their mettle recently against the Langley Saints, ranked third in the BC High School Football Coastal Conference. They learned a hard lesson when the Saints beat the Whalers handily 34-8 for their second loss of the season.
The Saints had more size and dominated physically. They scored on their first possession and led throughout. The Whalers did fight back and in the second half as running back Kooper Chambers rushed for a touchdown and caught a pass from quarterback Brayden Jupe for the two-point conversion. But they were still unable to stop the unrelenting game of the Saints.
“Langley is a very good team,” said Whalers coach Jeremy Conn. “They are ranked third and we were fourth for a reason. They had a very good game plan and executed it better than we did. We struggled on offence and will need to make some changes and on defence they were able to get a few big plays on us.”
The senior Whalers are now 3-2 and are in fourth place in league standings. They have two more games left, against Holy Cross Crusaders and the top -anked Robert Bateman Timberwolves, who remain unbeaten so far this season.
The Whalers will host the Crusaders on Friday, Oct. 28 at noon at Ballenas field. It’s an important must-win game for the Whalers as they are vying for a playoff spot.
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“If we win, we hoped it will help get us fourth in the conference and then home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs,” said Conn. “Our last game is at Robert Bateman who is the number one team. So that will be a good test of how much we learned from today and improve. That is what we need to do, learn and improve as we can play better than we did today.”
The Junior Varsity Whalers travelled to Windsor to face the Dukes on Oct. 19. The Whalers ended up losing 41-8 and remain winless. Matthew Greenshields scored the only touchdown for the Whalers and added the two-point convert.
The junior Whalers will play two more game this season. They take on the Argyle Pipers, also winless this season. It’s an important game for both teams as they are each hoping to finish fourth overall among the AA teams in their AAA/AA Coastal Hybrid Conference. Doing so will earn them a spot in post-season play.
“We need to win for a chance to get into the provincial playoffs,” said Conn.