Holy Cross Crusaders went on a football offensive Friday in Vernon.
The Surrey high school scored 29 points in the first half, intercepted four passes on defence – three returned for pick sixes – and rolled to a 36-0 win over the young and inexperienced Fulton Maroons in an exhibition game at Grahame Park.
“Holy Cross is a very solid squad,” said Maroons head coach Mike Scheller. “They were definitely the more polished and much better squad out there. They showed a lot of class playing their second units against us, and that was appreciated by our coaching staff.”
Caden Doyle rushed for 53 yards on 19 carries for Fulton while Colton Annis picked up 15 yards on five handles. Quarterback Ike Olson ran four times for seven yards.
Neither Olson nor Noah Alleyne was able to complete a pass on the day against a tough Crusaders secondary.
“Offensively, we made way too many mistakes too be even effective,” said Scheller. “The three interceptions returned for touchdowns were not always the fault of the QB. Our receivers did not fight for the ball.”
The Maroons fumbled once, giving Holy Cross five takeaways to Fulton’s one (fumble recovery).
“You cannot win football like that,” said Scheller. “We also took too many procedure penalties and it killed us.”
Defensively, Annis and Doyle had four tackles each, Ethan Eisenhauer contributed three and Olson had two tackles.
“Eisenhauer was tough on the corner and made some nice tackles,” said Scheller. Annis played well at inside linebacker, and Olson was good at defensive end.”
The Maroons travel to Omak, Wash. for a game Friday night and will open the Okanagan AA regular season Friday, Sept. 25, at 6 p.m. at the new Greater Vernon Athletics Park at Okanagan College.
The Vernon Panthers hosted Nanaimo’s John Barsby Bulldogs in an exhibition game Saturday at VSS, a rematch of last year’s B.C. AA semifinal, won in the snow at UBC by the eventual provincial champion Bulldogs.
It was the Panthers’ only loss of 2014.
VSS and Fulton will play each other to round out the Okanagan AA regular season Friday, Nov. 6, at GVAP.
