The Ballenas Whalers suffered a double blow when they lost 21-14 to Argyle Pipers at home on Friday afternoon.
Not only did they lose their third game in a row, but their leader, quarterback Ben Robinson, may not see action in their next game after suffering a concussion and being removed from the game.
The senior varsity football team will now be hard-pressed to win their final two Western AA Conference games and retain a mathematical chance of making the playoffs.
For the junior Whalers, the situation is quite the opposite. On a rainy and very wet Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 18, at the Ballenas field, the Whalers shut out the junior Pipers 43-0 for their third successive win. They remain unbeaten this season and are tied for first place in the Pacific AA Conference with Holy Cross, who the young Whalers will be facing on Wenesday on the road at 3 p.m. in Surrey.
The senior Whalers found themselves trailing early when the Pipers scored first to lead 7-0. But credit to the Whalers defence, they were able to keep the Pipers off the scoreboard until the end of the first.
However, offensively, the Whalers struggled as they were tentative and uncertain. They weren’t able to generate a lot of scoring opportunities. Head coach Dan Smith said the Whalers did not prepare well for this important game.
“We had a leaders’ meeting this week and one of the things we addressed was sort of the lack of some of our seniors at practice and it shows when you start a game,” said Smith. “You don’t get enough work in at practice, you come out tentative. And that sort of came back to hurt us a bit.”
To make matters worse, in the second half, Robinson got knocked out during a play and endured a concussion. He was not able to return to the game.
Junior Whaler quarterback, Ben Chomolok, took over and was able to revive the sagging spirits of the Whalers, who made a strong comeback late in the game. They were able to score two touchdown and a two point conversion to just trail by seven points but they ran out of time. The Pipers ran the clock down to end the Whalers’ rally. Whalers’ Damon Thompson had a touchdown and two point conversion, with Chomolok scoring the other touchdown.
Smith they have been working with Chomolok lately to give the Whalers a different look offensively as other teams have been focussing on containing Robinson.
“We actually had Ben Robinson playing some other positions during practice with the idea that they couldn’t key on him as a quarterback,” Smith explained. “We were ready to go with Chomolok just to change things up. With Chomolok we kinda go with the basic flyback offense and he seemed to have confidence with that. He is a very calm kid and of course they don’t key on him that much. He did a great job for us.”
Smith credited Argyle’s top player, Devin O’Hea, who gave the Whalers defence so much grief throughout the game.
“13 (O’Hea) was the difference for us,” said Smith. “Our defence played really well. We shut a lot of other things down and 13 had some big plays which we anticipated. We had good coverage on but he was almost a man against boys today.”
The Whalers will now be putting all their energy and focus on their next game, against Holy Cross on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Ballenas Field at 1 p.m. Smith said the Whalers need to win their last two games to get a playoff chance.