The still-perfect Ridge Meadows Knights Atom Gold team will play for a provincial championship this weekend.
The atoms got their biggest scare of the season on Saturday, when they battled a similarly dominant Abbotsford Falcons team in the Valley Community Football League championship in Langley.
The Ridge Gold team went 5-0 in the pre-season, then 10-0 in the regular season, and won their playoff semi-final game 34-14 over the Langley Bears.
Abbotsford had given them a scare during the regular season, as the teams were tied 0-0 at half, before the Knights handed the Falcons their only loss of the season in a 14-7 second half.
“That was the closest game we had all year,” noted head coach Joe Kalinich.
Saturday, the teams were again deadlocked in a scoreless tie at half time, as both teams played unbeatable defence.
Finally, Knight running back Jacob Brass busted a big run, taking the ball half the field for a touchdown.
Michael Diniz kicked the convert, worth two points at the atom level, and Ridge was up 8-0.
Five minutes later Abbotsford answered the touchdown, but missed the convert, and lost the game 8-6.
“We were really even, our two teams,” said Kalinich.
Tyler Sanderson played great defence, twice stripping the ball from Falcons ball carriers, and once recovering the fumble.
Fullback Kian Zabihi was great on both sides of the ball for Ridge.
“He ran the ball like a beast up the middle – they couldn’t stop him,” said Kalinich. “On defence he played nose tackle, and was in their backfield all day long.”
The Ridge Meadows Atom Blue team also had a winning season, going 7-3, but lost 32-0 to Abbotsford in the league semi-final.
This weekend the atoms will be in Kamloops for the provincials, where they will face off against teams from Prince George and Kelowna.
The Junior Bantam White Knights lost in their league championship game against the Falcons on Saturday.
They went 7-3 in league, then beat Chilliwack 23-0 in the league semi-finals.
