Rebels aim to put brakes on Broncos

GAME DAY: KAMLOOPS AT WESTSHORE, 3 P.M.

For 29 minutes and 30 seconds the Westshore Rebels were in the ball game.

Having just scored off a fake field goal, the Rebels were 30 seconds away from getting out of the first half down 21-8 on the road to the Langley Rams last Saturday — a moral victory of sorts against a strong B.C. Football Conference club.

But a trick play of their own produced a 71-yard score for the Rams, who went on to a 42-9 victory, courtesy of a crushing pitch play to receiver Bobby Pospischil, who then connected with running back Nathan Lund through the air for the lethal strike.

That tally broke the fragile young Rebels, who had actually led 1-0 after the first quarter and had chances to score on a pair of long drives that stalled in the red zone.

The Rebels also lost middle linebacker Sheldon Mack to a season-ending broken ankle early in the second quarter, which left the defence vulnerable.

Westshore (1-4) will attempt to rebound today at 3 p.m. against one of the top offensive teams in the league, the 3-2 Kamloops Broncos, who rode herd on the Rebels back in Week 3, amassing a 60-11 win and totalling 575 yards in offence. Jacob Palmarin ran for 192 yards and five touchdowns that day in Kamloops.

In Langley last Saturday, the Rebels were close for that 29:30 stretch.

“We actually won the first quarter, thanks to some great defence in which we shut them out. We were feeling really good about that first quarter and then it got away from us. Our youth was exposed,” said Rebels head coach J.C. Boice.

“We decided to go for that fake field goal and got it. They answered with their own trick play and scored in the final seconds. That was frustrating, rather than going into halftime with some momentum we could build on. Again, I thought our youth was exposed.”

On the first play of the second quarter, Pospischil hauled in a 71-yard TD from QB Dylan Tucker so, in a nutshell, the Rebels were burned by big plays by the Rams.

“That’s really what it was, they had big plays. We, for the most part, out-gained them in the first half and forced several punts. I was pleased with that, then down the stretch we were flat,” said Boice, whose offence managed 225 yards in the opening half. That was just 33 yards fewer than the Rams, but 142 of Langley’s 258 yards came off the two lengthy TDs.

“When those plays come out, they can demoralize a team,” said Rebels rookie defensive back Cody Wist. “It’s hard to come back from those. You start stressing on each other, lose focus, get dis- tracted by it and it gets you down. We had a tough time snapping out of it.”

Wist has had a good start to his year with 11 tackles, three interceptions and two knockdowns. The 18-year-old Belmont grad is far from satisfied.

“I’m looking forward to this week, it’s another home game. Home games seem to be our good luck, I guess, as opposed to the away results,” said Wist. “We’ve had a rough start there. We need to make a statement, we need a turnaround somewhere; have something to build on.”

It would have to come against a very talented Broncos team as all teams begin the second half of the season.

“It was a very lopsided win in their favour [in Week 3], but they have to travel that long way to us this time,” Boice said of Kamloops. “They throw the ball really well and run really well. It’s a solid, older team and that really reflects.”