A dominating performance by the Charles Hays (CHSS) Rainmakers rugby team highlighted a busy weekend of action last weekend for the high school’s varsity teams.
Facing five other northwest squads last weekend including powerful teams from Burns Lake, Houston, Smithers and two from Williams Lake, the Rainmakers showed the region they were a force to be reckoned with, gathering an incredible four wins and one tie on the day.
“That was a great play day. Our boys did very well,” said head coach Andy Enns.
“We had some rookies that had a great impact with the team and all players played very well. We had a couple minor injuries that had some people out for portions of the game and we were able to move our players around and they didn’t miss a beat.”
Cody Schaeffer and Liam Robertson were able to exploit their foes’ weaknesses on the outside, reaching the in-goal area on multiple occasions.
During their first game, the Rainmakers tore apart their first Williams Lake team they played, 40-0, after watching them play a tough, aggressive style of rugby against the other Willams Lake squad that they thought would be more quite a bit more challenging.
“There was some excellent rugby playing so we were watching them closely to see how it would turn out and then the loser of that game played Burns Lake and just totally annihilated Burns Lake, so we were thinking ‘Well now, how is this going to work for us?’,” said Enns.
“Our team just outplayed them in every aspect of the game.”
The Rainmakers then defeated traditional powerhouse Houston, 15-7, then went on to top Burns Lake 10-7. They later beat the second Williams Lake team 10-5. Their only tie came in a 5-5 game versus Smithers.
The CHSS senior boys’ and girls’ volleyball team were on the road as well and they got their first taste of game action last weekend in Smithers.
The boys’ volleyball squad were able to come away with a win against Hazelton by a score of 25-23, 25-21 and lost three more – two against Smithers Secondary and one versus Houston Christian School (HCS).
Smithers topped CHSS 25-8, 25-22 and later beat them 2-0 in straight games. HCS defeated Charles Hays 3-1.
The senior girls won two and lost one match. They defeated Bulkley-Valley Christian School 25-16, 25-20 and beat Ebenezer Canadian Reformed School 6-25, 25-23, 15-12. The girls fell to Smithers Secondary 19-25, 18-25.
“They had fun. It was an eye-opening experience for them, realizing what they were up against,” said team official Brian Cameron.
While the volleyball teams invaded Smithers, it was Smithers’ boys’ soccer team coming back the other way to Prince Rupert on Sunday.
The Rainmakers faced off against Smithers Secondary for two games on Sunday afternoon and Cullen Riley got things started five minutes into the game when he took advantage of a mishandled catch by the opposing keeper to make the game 1-0.
Terrace’s Caledonia was unable to make the trip for the rainy play day at Charles Hays.
