The Ballenas Whalers senior varsity football team suffered a disappointing 26-0 loss against the Langley Saints in front of home fans at the Ballenas Secondary field on Friday afternoon (Sept. 25).
It was the first home game for the Whalers, who are now 1-1 in conference games this season.
Head coach Dan Smith said the loss may be disappointing but he feels it will help the Whalers team as the season progresses.
“This Langley team was in the B.C. championships the last time and they are a very good football team,” said Smith.
The Whalers’ downfall, according to Smith, was the errors they committed throughout the game that the Saints capitalized on.
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“Langley took advantage of it and we just can’t do that,” said Smith. “Our football team, for some reason, we play with emotion but we play with too much emotion at times and we make mistakes. Today mistakes have cost us and I don’t want to go through them because there were so many.”
On a positive note, Smith commended the Whalers for continuing to play hard despite getting stymied and outplayed.
“We played them very physical,” said Smith. “I was wondering at the beginning of the game because they have some big players. The score doesn’t really tell you how physically well we played against them.
Ryker Pearson had three carries for 50 yards and was 9-for-23 passing for 83 yards. He also led the team with eight tackles. Enzo Agostini had two sacks while Will Dubeski had four tackles and a fumble recovery.
The Whalers will review the video of the game and learn from it. Smith said they look at the areas where they need to improve on as they still have seven more conference games to play this season.
“We lost to a better team today at this point but we want to be a better than these guys at the end of the year,” said Smith.
The Whalers will play at home again on Friday, Oct. 1 against West Vancouver Highlanders at 2:30 p.m. Smith said it’s the Whalers’ Mother’s Day game. He hopes some of their key players who are injured will recover in time for the game.
The junior varsity Whalers will hit the road on Wednesday, Sept. 29 to take on the host West Vancouver Highlanders at 2:30 p.m.
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