The North Langley bantam Bears are through to the Vancouver Mainland Football League finals after a shutout victory.
Jacob Stebbings threw touchdown passes on consecutive series to Andy Hanlen (33 yards) and Alex Henderson (36 yards) in a 14-0 victory over the Mission Niners on Sunday at McLeod Athletic Park.
Nick Lecroix was a standout on the Bears defence, constantly blitzing and disrupting the Mission offence. Charlie May also came up with an interception to snuff out a Niners drive.
The game ended at halftime as Mission found themselves without enough healthy bodies to continue.
North Langley faces Richmond in the finals on Nov. 15.
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They needed overtime, but it was the North Langley Bears who advanced to the finals in a defensive battle.
The only points came on a 15-yard Tyson Hoy field goal in the 3-0 victory for the North Langley peewee squad over the Chilliwack Blue Giants.
In overtime each team gets the ball at the opponents’ 15-yard line.
Chilliwack was threatening but Mathieu Gale kept the ball carrier out of the end zone on one play, and then on the last attempt, Nick Reimer and Brandon Folkerts teamed up for the tackle.
On the North Langley possession, Marcus Stang moved the ball forward five yards — he accounted for 149 of the team’s 189 yards of offence — before Hoy connected on the field goal.
The Bears play the Abbotsford Falcons in the finals on Nov. 15.
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The North Langley atom Bears fell 34-14 to the Meadow Ridge Knights in their playoff game on Saturday.
The Bears had a great second quarter, getting a touchdown from Owen Sieben and on the ensuing Knights possession, Ty Gallinger recovered a fumble.
Sieben then eluded several tackles and was able to get a pass downfield, which Keaghan Hurley caught and ran in for the 42-yard score. With Gallinger’s two-point convert, North Langley was briefly ahead 14-12, but Meadow Ridge scored the final 22 points.
Kayden Bell, Ezekiel Bodill, Manny Fotiou, Annika Key and Hurley led the defense in the losing effort.
