A stifling second half defensive effort and just enough offence propelled the South Delta Sun Devils to a 24-6 win over the Seaquam Seahawks in the opening round of the BC High School football playoffs last Friday afternoon at Burnaby Lakes.
Seaquam broke through with a late score in the second quarter to lead 6-0 at the half.
South Delta received the second half kickoff and had their best drive of the game getting the ball all the way to the five-yard line, but some negative plays and a penalty drove them back and they had to settle for a Diego Alatorre field goal to make the game 6-3.
After a defensive stop, the Sun Devils got the ball back and carried that drive into the fourth quarter where Dominic Dumas connected with Dawson Sjoberg on a 14-yard TD pass to put the Sun Devils up 10-6.
Running back Ryan Roberts dominated the second half with a 25-yard TD run and 153 yards rushing overall.
Cameron Trolland finished the scoring with a 45-yard TD run.
The defence was led by conference all-stars Oskar McPhie with four tackles and an interception and Josh Groenewold with six tackles and a fumble recovery.
Morgan MacCubbin was all over the field with nine tackles, while Darius Hanna had six tackles.
Head coach Ray Moon said Carson Graham will pose a different challenge than Seaquam did.
“Carson is 80 to 90 per cent pass. They are not as big as Seaquam, but they are quick, and they have a hurry up offence and don’t huddle at all,” said Moon. “They try and catch the defence off guard with their quick play and pace. The plays themselves are straight forward, it’s just having your guys ready for that hurry up offence. We will have automatic calls on defence that you set up for, so they are not dictating the play to our defence. The other way to stop them is to have a numbering system of our own, so we will prepare both ways defensively.”
Moon said offensively the guys are in a good rhythm right now.
“The first half of the game against Seaquam was a defensive struggle, but we came out hitting and Seaquam knew they were bigger than us, but they had a few injuries,” said Moon. “In the second half we executed really well and made sure we didn’t give up any big plays. We’re starting to jell as a team and the kids are realizing it. We are in the one and you are done time of the year, so you lose and you go home.”
