Ballenas Whalers junior and senior varsity football teams swept the visiting Robert Bateman Timberwolves on Friday afternoon.
The JV Whalers tamed the JV Timberwolves 34-6 to earn their first win in the AA Mainland Division action.
The senior Whalers of the Western AA Conference duplicated the feat to stop the Eastern Conference AA SV Timberwolves 42-21 in an exhibition match. Head coach Dan Smith was pleased with the way the Whalers played.
“We can never figure out in practice how they’re going to play,” said Smith. “These guys practise fairly loose. You don’t know if they’re kind of focused or not. But they sure like to play and they played well on both sides of the ball. The Timberwolves have a very strong football program and I kind of delighted and surprised on how we handled them quite well.”
The JV Whalers running game was aggressively strong throughout the giving the Timberwolves defence a difficult task of trying to contain them.
Ayden Chambers had eight carries for 100 yards and an 18-yard touchdown while Gage D’Lerma added two TD runs of 20 and 10 yards. Quarterback Ryker Pearson had four rushes for 98 yards and two TD carries as he went 9-for-12 in the air for 108 yards.
On defence, Chambers led the team with five tackles while Jonah Anderson had four tackles and two sacks.
The JV Whalers travel to Surrey on Wednesday to play the Holy Cross Crusaders for another important conference game.
The senior Whalers had a solid game and were able to field all their players, which Smith said was encouraging.
The Whalers was tested early when the Timberwolves drove down the line and were 10 yards away from the goalline. The Whalers defence made a strong stand to deny the Timberwolves.
The Whalers then responded with quarterback Ben Chomolok sneaking the ball in from two-yards away after a long drive. The Whalers got another scoring chance when they recovered the onside kick by Lennart Tjarks and Demar Hohnstein punched it in from seven yards away.
Hohnstein would add another 57-yard touchdown and finished with 123 yards on just five carries. Jack Giroux also had a seven-yard touchdown run in the first half. Nate Robinson hauled in the final score of the first half from 19 yards away on a fade pass from Chomolok. The Whalers led 29-7 at the half.
In the second, Chomolok, who went 18-of-23 for 253 yards and two touchdown passes, connected with wide receiver Jacob Stockton from 17 yards away to set the pace again early. The Whalers went on to win 42-21.
Adrian Friesen led the defence with 10 tackles while Bruce McCabe had six, and Steven Boley five tackles.
The senior Whalers will face another Eastern Conference team when they host Frank Hurt Hornets of Surrey on Friday at 2 p.m
