The last time the Okanagan Sun ran the table in the B.C. Football Conference regular season, Cam Bedore was in elementary school.
More than a decade later, the 22-year-old quarterback and his Sun teammates are just a win away from duplicating the feat.
With a win over the Broncos on Saturday in Kamloops, the Sun would finish the 2015 campaign at 10-0, the first time since 2004 that Kelowna’s junior program has attained regular season perfection.
“It would be huge,” Bedore said of the prospects of the Sun going undefeated. “We’ve had some really good seasons under coach (Shane) Beatty but have fallen just short.
“The guys have worked hard all season to give us a chance to reach that goal and now we are a win away from doing it.”
Despite the Sun’s almost complete domination of its opponents this season—a 9-0 record with 437 points scored and just 70 against—Bedore said his team can’t take anything for granted heading into Saturday’s season finale.
“We know we’re capable of going 10-0 and it would be a huge confidence booster,” he said. “But we can’t be complacent about it, thinking we’re untouchable. We have to make sure we play out this game right to the finish and end the (regular) season the right way.”
Head coach Shane Beatty said the players and entire Sun organization are more than worthy of an unbeaten season.
“These kids have worked so hard, they deserve it, it would be nice to see them rewarded,” Beatty said. “It’s been 11 years, so this team deserves it from top to bottom.”
The Sun has gone 10-0 four times in team history, including in 2004 when current GM Jay Christensen was the club’s head coach. And while repeating the feat would be an admirable accomplishment for the 2015 Sun, Christensen said even grander goals lie ahead.
“It’s the first goal and would be great for the team, but not the ultimate one,” Christensen said of a potential unbeaten record. “To me, whether you’re 9-1 or 10-0, it doesn’t matter as much as long as you’re positioned where you want to be going into the playoffs.
“It would certainly be a great accomplishment for them, but I think (10-0) is something that would be special to talk about after the season.
“This team knows what level it has to play at to be successful, regardless of their record.”
Meanwhile, Bedore and the offense were pretty much untouchable last Saturday—particularly in the first quarter—as the Sun ran its record to 9-0 with a 51-10 drubbing of the Westshore Rebels.
The veteran pivot threw five touchdown passes in the first 15 minutes to put the game away—two each to Kyle Kawamoto and Thomas Huber, and another to Pierre Luc-Lord.
Bedore said the scoring outburst was a product of another solid effort by the entire Sun offence.
“I think as we’re getting later on in the season, the offence is really clicking,” said Bedore. “All aspects are getting better, we’ve studied a lot of film and we’re exploiting defences better.
“We’ve been getting great catches from our receivers,” he added, “our running backs and O-line have been doing a great job…it’s the whole offence.”
Fellow Sun QB Josiah Joseph added a nine-yard touchdown pass to Shai Ross in the second quarter.
The Sun piled up 561 yards in total offense, including 415 in the air.
The remainder of the Sun’s points came on three field goals from Thomas Huber, who now has 121 points this season, 11 short of the Sun’s all-time record of 132 set by Steven Shott in 2010.
Sun veteran Jonas Gering, with 12 sacks, is three shy of the Sun’s single-season record set by Steven Doege.
Kyle Kawamoto needs 145 yards receiving to reach 1,000 for the season.
Meanwhile, an Okanagan a win this weekend over the Broncos would set up another meeting between the teams on Oct. 18 at the Apple Bowl in the conference semifinal.
