The Ballenas Whalers junior and senior varsity teams continue to impress against Triple-A opponents in BC High School Football action.
As a Double-A school Ballenas has taken on the bigger schools in exhibition games as a way to build and hone their game in preparation for their own conference games.
Head coach Dan Smith they always schedule games against Triple-A teams to get the Whalers into competitive mode early into the season.
“We don’t do a lot of hitting in practice and stuff because we want to keep our kids healthy because of numbers,” said Smith. “So when we put them up against Triple-A teams, they are very competitive. I am impressed with the performance of both teams this week.”
The JV Whalers bounced back from their 29-24 loss against Centennial Centaurs with a 40-0 win against the Belmont Bulldogs on Sept. 11.
The senior Whalers are now 2-0 after a 21-0 against Belmont in front of home fans at Ballenas Secondary on Friday night, Sept. 13.
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The JV Whalers dominated the Bulldogs from start to finish.
They led 26-0 at halftime and just kept the pressure on en route to a 40-0 win.
Smith said JV Whalers worked out the weaknesses that were evident against the Centaurs.
“We identified three or four things that they needed to get better at after from the first game,” said Smith. “Things like we needed to get off to a better start, tackle better and be more aggressive with our play. We were just a bit too tentative. And boy, the kids played really, really well. They improved in all of those areas. I was really happy with that.”
Ayden Chambers led the junior Whalers with three touchdowns and rushed 12 times for 121 yards.
Quarterback Ryker Pearson threw a touchdown pass to Brayden Jupe and rushed five times for 57 yards. International student Lennart Tjarks had a 57-yard interception for a touchdown.
Defensively, Will Dubesky had five tackles while Rio Shoda-Dooher had five tackles as well and two sacks.
The senior Whalers hosted the Bulldogs on Friday. Smith said they expected Belmont to play aggressively as they were not happy how the JV Whalers beat them.
“They came out pretty fired up but our kids met the challenge,” said Smith. “I think the win we had against Centennial was a good team-building win. Going into this game, our kids had confidence and we executed pretty well.”
New Whalers wide receiver Jacob Stockton caught two touchdown passes that included a 46-yard catch-and-run.
Running back Demar Hohnstein scored on an eight-yard run as he carried the pigskin 16 times for 124 yards. He also had four tackles and a sack. Quarterback Ben Chomolok passed for 134 yards and had two touchdown passes.
On defence, Jack Giroux led the way with seven tackles, while Mac Backer and Adrian Friesen each had four solo tackles.
Smith said defence was key in both games.
“To shut out a Triple-A team which usually has a pretty good lineup of athletes is playing really good defence, not only on the defensive calls but also in the defensive effort,” said Smith.
The Whalers will play a doubleheader next Friday at Ballenas against the Robert Bateman Timberwolves. For the JV Whalers it will be their first AA Mainland Conference game. The game starts at noon. For the senior Whalers, who play in the Western AA Conference, the matchup will be an exhibition against the Eastern AA Conference Timberwolves team. The game starts at 2 p.m.
