The Ballenas Junior Varsity Whalers were in a David versus Goliath game against GW Graham last Wednesday - but in this case, Goliath won.
The Whalers, a Double A high school football team, faced the Grizzlies, a Triple A team that was allowed to play one more year in the Double A division.
The Whalers were completely outplayed 40-0 in the quarterfinals of the playoffs that was played in Chilliwack.
Head coach Dan Smith feels the Grizzlies should not be in the Double A division. He stressed he is not using it as an excuse as to why they lost as the Grizzlies, he said, are a good team that is well-coached and are likely to win it all.
The Whalers put up a good fight but Smith said, they simply were no match to the bigger and more experienced Grizzlies, whose top receiver Logan Buchwitz, who is six-foot-four, weighing over 220 pounds, made it tough for Ballenas defence.
“He (Buchwitz) caught three passes where we had three players on top of him, clinging to him and he just sort of stretched out over everybody and proceeded to throw people off to the ground and run into the end zone,” Smith described. “It was like a college player playing against Grade 9s. That was tough.”
Smith said the Whalers linemen were overwhelmed.
“This is where our inexperience and youngness showed up because we just couldn’t handle them,” said Smith. “When you’re outmatched with size like that, by the time you get to the fourth quarter you feel beaten down. That’s where we were. But I am really proud of our kids because they weren’t intimidated. They fought hard but they were just too big for us to handle.”
Buchwitz scored four touchdowns for the Grizzlies, moving on to the semis to face either another Vancouver Island team, the John Barsby Bulldogs of Nanaimo or Pitt Meadows.
Smith said that he hopes the young Whalers will use this game as motivation to improve for next season.