Stop me if you have heard this before: Saturday’s football game will be won by the team which controls the line of scrimmage and establishes a running game.
Nothing earth-shattering about that revelation.
But that — along with the always-crucial winning the turnover battle — is what the Langley Rams playoff game against the Westshore Rebels is likely to come down to.
The Rams (4-6) are at Westhills Stadium on Saturday night to face the first-place Rebels (9-1) in one of the BC Junior Football Conference semifinal contests.
The Rebels — who are also the defending league champions and riding a nine-game winning streak following a week one loss — beat Langley twice during the regular season, 29-5 in week four in Victoria and then 33-28 back in week eight in Langley.
And it was in the second of those two contests where Langley came closest to knocking off the Rebels, taking a 27-11 lead at the half. Remove those 30 minutes from the equation however, and the cumulative score reads 51-6 over the remaining 90 minutes in favour of Westshore.
So which Rams team takes the field for the playoffs?
The run game is sure to be a factor as the teams finished one-two in the league for passing yards allowed with Westshore surrendering just 170 yards per game through the air and Langley one short pass behind at 176 yards per game.
That means it is going to come down to who can move the ball along the ground.
And the Rebels boast a big advantage in that department.
Both games saw Westshore surpass 200 yards along the ground (481 yards combined) and for the season, they averaged 216 per game. That is nearly 100 yards more than Langley’s 123.8 yards per game.
The Rebels are led by their two-headed rushing attack of Trey Campbell (814 yards, 6.5 yards per carry and nine touchdowns) and quarterback Scott Borden (321 yards, 6.8 per carry and two touchdowns).
They also have a pair of all-star linemen creating holes in Christian Krause and Tyson Thompson.
Langley counters with the tandem of Nathan Lund (456 yards, 7.7 per carry, four touchdowns) and Joe Carter (376 yards, 4.4 per carry and five touchdowns).
Both teams possess an elite receiver in Langley’s Khalik Johnson (782 yards, 15 yards per catch, six touchdowns) and Westshore’s D’Saun Greenaway (663 yards, 15.4 yards per catch and six touchdowns).
Both receivers, as well as Borden, Lund and Campbell were named league all-stars.
And while Borden is firmly entrenched as Westshore’s main signal caller, Langley has had three quarterbacks line up under centre for significant playing time.
The main two have been Rylan Matters (53.4 per cent completion percentage, 1,064 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions), Colby Peters (50.5 per cent, 506 yards, two touchdowns and five interceptions) and Stephen Legare (54.4 per cent, 437 yards, two touchdowns and eight interceptions).
On the defensive side of the ball, the Rams sacked opposing quarterbacks — which has long been a staple of their defensive success — a league-low 11 times. Conversely, Rebels defenders brought down the quarterback a conference-leading 31 times.
Westshore also forced 32 turnovers (more than three a game) with 17 fumble recoveries and a dozen interceptions. Langley was second-worst in the league with four fumble recoveries and just eight interceptions.
The Rebels boast two all-stars along the d-line in Jeremie Drouin and Kent Hicks while Langley had one all-star on that side of the ball in rookie halfback Kyle Clarot.
sports@langleytimes.com
