For a team that routinely piles up the points and yardage, it was a much different script that produced its first rivalry game win in two seasons.
The South Delta Sun Devils needed a late touchdown and a big-time defensive effort to pull out a 6-3 victory over the Seaquam Seahawks in the annual McDonalds Delta Cup clash on a glorious Saturday afternoon in Tsawwassen. The result snapped a three-game losing streak in rivalry games against the Seahawks and New West, dating back to the 2017 campaign, and leaves South Delta at 3-3 heading into its final weekend of the regular season.
The Sun Devils entered the tilt as the province’s top ranked passing team and averaging 24 points per game. Yet they came ever-so-close to being shut out on their home field for the first time in recent memory.
The winless Seahawks (0-5) kicked a 30-yard field goal on the final play of the opening half then relied on a terrific defensive performance to make it stand until less than two minutes remaining. That’s when quarterback Ben McDonald found Ethan Troniak behind coverage for a 23-yard pass and run play for the major score.
Although McDonald threw for 187-yards, completing 15 of 31 pass attempts, the usual “big play” element was all but eliminated from the Sun Devils arsenal thanks to constant pressure from the Hawks’ front seven and excellent coverage in the secondary. Penalties also plagued the offence, including an 24-yard touchdown run by McDonald wiped out on a holding call.
Head coach Ray Moon says his team has to be better after piling up 34 points in a heartbreaking one-point loss to No. 1 ranked Vancouver College two weeks earlier.
“I think they looked at their record and figured they could mail it in today,” said Moon. “Right now we are playing to the level of our competition. There we are fighting No. 1 College for every square inch then have that kind of effort today.
I think it’s part of being a young team. They don’t have the idea of going out and playing their game and being dominant. It’s a learning curve and not one I am comfortable going through.”
Still, it was a big effort by the South Delta defence that twice produced three and out Seahawk possessions in the late going to get the offence back on the field.
Defensive lineman Andrew Kraft led the effort with seven tackles and two sacks. Evan Paterson topped all receivers with 94 yards in receptions. Both received $250 scholarships from Tsawwassen and Ladner McDonalds franchise owner Steve Krawchuk as part of their sponsorship of the SDSS program.
The Sun Devils host the unbeaten Jugglers (5-0) next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. South Delta will finish fifth in the Western Conference standings regardless of the result and face Terry Fox or Abbotsford in the wild card round of the playoffs — Nov. 9-10.
