Oceanside’s two youth football teams came to play in their regular season home openers up at Springwood Park last Sunday, as they swept their double header against the Comox Valley Raiders.
In the early game the Oceanside Peewee Lions turned in a great effort to extend their unbeaten streak. The local squad of 8-11 year olds went into their home opener unbeaten at 3-0 with road wins over the Nanaimo Outlaws, Campbell River Eagles and Ladysmith Steelers.
“Basically a good hard effort from all our kids, and a lot of our first year kids came up big, which was nice to see,” coach Harold Barker said of the local squad of 8-11 year olds.
In game two, Oceanside’s Jr. Bantam Titans rolled over their Raider counterparts 31-0 to up their regular season record to 3-0-1.
The Titans opened their season with a 35-12 win over Fairview Cowboys in Nanaimo and tied the Campbell River Eagles 14-14 in CR.
According to Titans coach Brad Burns there are 10 returning players from last year’s team that went undefeated at 8-0.
On Sunday, Oceanside’s Evan Penzel returned the opening kickoff for his first of three touchdowns on the day. The Titans took a 19-0 lead into the half — Ben Robinson and Clayton Hurst scored the other two TDs.
“We played well — it was a real good team win,” Burns said of Sunday’s victory, adding quite a few of the players on the team of 12 and 13 year olds “are on the other side of the fence from a few years ago when they were always losing, so they’re enjoying themselves.”
Both teams compete in the Mid Island Cooperative Football League.
GAMES ON
The Lions and Titans are in Nanaimo this Sunday for a double-header against the Barsby Bulldogs.
Both JB teams are currently undefeated “but we beat them twice last year, so it’s game on,” said coach Burns.