The Ballenas Whalers senior football team’s scheduled opening game at home was cancelled last weekend after the opposing Pitt Meadows Marauders had to scrap the Saturday trip to Vancouver Island Saturday.
The cancellation will extend the wait for fans to see the team in Parksville another three weeks, with the next home date set for Oct. 8 against Nanaimo District Secondary School.
This Friday the team travels to Langford for an evening game against Belmont Secondary. The Whalers will be in Nanaimo the following week for a Sept. 23 contest against John Barsby Secondary.
Junior fall to NDSS
With their scheduled game against Pitt Meadows cancelled earlier in the week, the Ballenas juniors squared off with NDSS in an exhibition game in Parksville last weekend.
The Whalers had their running game in fine working order, but struggled with pass defence and turnovers and suffered a 28-16 loss to the visitors.
Tailback Damon Thompson rushed for 238 yards and fullback Kolby Jack added 101 as the Whalers piled up 379 yards on the ground. Thompson accounted for all of the teams’ points on two touchdown runs, a two-point conversion, and a safety when he tackled Nanaimo ballcarrier Carson Bullen in the end zone late in the first half.
After Thompson’s 14-yard TD run drew the Whalers to 20-16, Ballenas pinned the Islander into a third-and-23 play deep in their own territory. But Nanaimo quarterback Clayton Henessy found Finn Bradbrooke behind the Whalers’ defence for a 78-yard touchdown pass, his second scoring toss of the game. The Islanders then stopped Ballenas on downs at midfield on the next-to-last play of the game.
The juniors will be back on home turf Sept. 28 for a rematch against NDSS that will count as a league game.
Will Roberts of the Oceanside Youth Football J.V. Lions (11) tries to elude a shirtsleeve tackle in the Lions’ 22-8 victory over Nanaimo at Ballenas Secondary School Saturday. — Image credit: J.R. Rardon/NEWS Staff
Lions roar in opener
Oceanside Youth Football kicked off its season in fine form Saturday, rolling to convincing wins in both the peewee and junior bantam divisions in a doubleheader at Ballenas.
The Peewee Lions powered to a 42-0 win over the Nanaimo Bombers in the opener, and the J.B. Lions cruised to a 22-8 win over the Nanaimo Lions while keeping the visitors off the scoreboard until well into the fourth quarter.
— NEWS Staff
