On Saturday, Oct. 13, the Comox Valley Raiders PeeWee and Junior Bantam football teams marched down to Nanaimo for games against the NDSS squads. The PeeWees kicked off the day with a strong performance. Once again Luke Yeo ran amok through the Cowboys, scoring nearly every time he touched the ball. Justin Meredith-Jones and Wesley Ayers both had strong games, holding the offensive line and getting into the backfield. On the other side of the ball, Stanley Novak and Reuben Kuzma made some good tackles in the defensive backfield. Game ball for the PeeWees goes to Angelique Kennedy: she had a strong game Saturday and made some key tackles on defence and had a couple of good runs down the sidelines helping the Raiders win 27-6.
Then came the JBs. After battling through low numbers and a usually lopsided size difference, the Raiders came out swinging against a much bigger Outlaw squad. Having lost once earlier this year to that team, the Raiders fought hard and slowly started gaining momentum against the much larger opponents by simply outlasting them on the field, a testament to how hard they work at practice.
On the offensive and defensive lines, Bailey McTavish, Brayden Laking and Sequoia Magaard-Reed held strong, holding the big guys in check on offence and pushing up-field on defence.
Rheyden Le was an absolute machine this Saturday, running the ball hard up the middle (with great lead blocking by Monty Watson) for some large gains and a couple of touchdowns while playing a huge role on the defensive side of the ball as well.
In the end the Raiders held strong and played an excellent game, tying the Outlaws 26-26 by holding off a last minute charge. Game ball goes to Rheyden Le, who was a dominating force out there all game.
The PeeWees and Junior Bantams play here this Sunday (Oct. 21) at Bill Moore Memorial Park against Parksville. The PeeWees start at 11 a.m., with the Junior Bantams kicking off at 1 p.m.
“They should both be great games to watch,” a Raiders’ spokesperson said.
– Comox Valley Raiders
