The Mt. Boucherie Bears and Kelowna Owls both had their hands full but both still came out on top in their B.C. high school football exhibition openers.
On Saturday morning on the turf at CNC, KSS came from behind in the third quarter to defeat the Raymond Comets from Alberta 43-34.
Parker Simson threw a pair of touchdown passes and also ran for two as the Owls took control of the game with four second-half touchdowns.
Brennan Balkenhol and Blaise Beauchemin caught TD receptions, while Seth Campbell scored twice on runs of six and 12 yards.
On defence, Sean McMechan had seven tackles, while Cole Pederson had three tackles and a pick.
On Saturday afternoon, the Bears took on one of the top ranked AA teams in the province in Ballenas Secondary and emerged with a 36-20 victory.
“They played us very hard and gave us a good game like we thought they would,” Bears assistant coach Rick Nelson said of Ballenas, from Vancouver Island. “All in all, I think we saw a lot of positives from our guys.”
Steve Johnson, playing his first season of high school football, scored a pair of touchdowns on passes from Tyler Toic and added a two-point conversion for the Bears.
Toic also connected with Spencer Schmidt (in photo) on a long TD pass.
Schmidt (safety), Luke Vincent (safety), and Chris Smith (corner) each had interceptions for the Bears defense which came up big with some key fourth-down stops deep in its own zone.
This weekend, the Bears travel to Victoria to take on the Mt. Douglas Rams, who have won the B.C. AAA championship three of the last four years.
The Owls will be on the road Saturday to play at Mission Secondary.
Meanwhile, the Rutland Voodoos will get their first taste of preseason action this Saturday when the host Prince George Secondary.
Kick off at RSS is 2 p.m.
