Sun snag 2 awards for road win

The Okanagan Sun went into the BCFC’s bye week on a winning note — on and off the field.

The Sun improved to 2-1-1 at the midpoint of the B.C. Football Conference season after squeaking out a 21-13 road victory over the Langley Rams (1-3-0) on Saturday night.

That concluded a four-game road trip to start the 2018 campaign, with Okanagan returning from the Labour Day bye to host Langley in its home opener on Saturday, Sept. 8, 7 p.m. at the Apple Bowl.

As for that win over Langley, the Sun got key contributions from kicker Isaac Wegner and linebacker Conor Richard, and they got rewarded with the BCFC player of the week awards on Tuesday for special teams and defence, respectively.

On a night that saw Okanagan’s offence struggling to find the end zone against a tough Rams’ defence, the Sun needed Wegner to put Langley on a long field with his punting and ultimately handle the majority of the scoring.

He delivered in both areas, accounting for 15 of the Sun’s 21 points — going 5-for-6 on field goals — while also averaging 38.3 yards on 10 punts.

Richard, who previously won the Week 1 honour for special teams after returning a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown in Okanagan’s other win (56-6 over Kamloops), shone on defence in Week 4 at Langley.

The speedy linebacker was all over the field in racking up four tackles, two quarterback sacks, one forced fumble and one batted ball.

In other BCFC news from Tuesday, former Sun head coach Shane Beatty has taken over as bench boss of the Victoria-based Westshore Rebels after Charly Cardilicchia resigned in the midst of serving a three-game suspension for violating the coaches’ code of ethics.

Beatty had been serving as the Rebels’ defensive co-ordinator since parting ways with the Sun in January 2016.

During three seasons in charge of the Sun, Beatty was twice named Canadian Junior Football League coach of the year. He led the team to a BCFC championship in 2015.