Chilliwack’s Valley Huskers saw their record fall to 2-2 with a 22-0 loss to the Langley Rams Saturday night.
The ‘home’ game for the Huskers was played at Abbotsford’s Rotary Stadium, and was a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty scenario.
If you like scoring and offence, the glass was totally dry.
Chilliwack generated less than 100 total yards (93) in the entire game, half of it produced by one player. Running back Brandon O’Connor churned out 48 yards on 12 carries, but the Husker passing game was missing in action.
Quarterback Josh Janssen completed eight of 24 passes for 77 yards, and served up two pick-sixes for the Rams defence. Colten DeJong picked off one pass and returned it seven yards for a touchdown and Ryan Bathleson brought back another 50 yards for a major.
Janssen was sacked three times, all three by Tyler Eckert.
“The Rams are certainly a very good defensive team,” said Husker head coach Bob Reist. “That said, our offence had a lot of opportunities to not only move the ball but put some points up. We struggled to catch the ball. Our receivers did not have a great day and I don’t think it was Josh’s best day either. Some of his reads weren’t exactly where we wanted to go to get into a rhythm, but credit where credit is due. Langley did a very good job of locking our guys down.”
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Chilliwack can take solace knowing they aren’t the only offence to be completely neutralized by the Rams, who’ve only allowed a single point through their first three games. Prior to beating the Huskers, Langley topped the Vancouver Island Raiders 22-1 and shut out the Okanagan Sun 7-0.
That covers the bad news.
The good news comes on the defensive side where Chilliwack held the Rams offence to two field goals.
“We shut them down for the most part and we played a good,” Reist said. “But the thing to point out there is that in a game where the offence is struggling, we need to make some plays and capitalize on opportunities. This defence continues to grow and get better every week, and that’s something to lean on. It’s just in those tight games, we need to come down with a turnover or two.”
Langley generated just 220 net yards. Rams running back Joel Klaassen rolled up 88 yards on 15 carries (5.9 yards per carry), but like the Huskers, Langley couldn’t get much going through the air. Rams QBs Jakob Davies and Trey Jones combined to complete just 13 of 25 pass attempts for 138 yards against a stout Chilliwack secondary.
Daniel Kubongo led the Rams with 64 receiving yards. No other Langley pass catcher had more than 20.
Chris Mushenza was a force for the Husker D, recording seven solo tackles and 1.5 quarterback sacks. Andy Ofosuhene was credited with half a sack.
Chilliwack moves on to an interesting home matchup against the Vancouver Island Raiders, who are 1-2 after falling 39-14 to the Okanagan Sun.
Kickoff will be 3 p.m. at Chilliwack’s Exhibition Stadium.
