It was a rough day at home for the midget and bantam Cowichan Bulldogs football teams last Sunday, but the junior bantam Bulldogs fared better on the road.
The midget Bulldogs “imploded mentally,” in a 40-0 loss to North Surrey at McAdam Park.
“When I played at UBC, the legendary Frank Smith told us, ‘an excuse is a poor reason for failure,'” Cowichan midget head coach Mike Williams said. “So, as much as we’ve got excuses, we still failed.”
The ‘Dogs were missing two starters on defence even before the game started. Then they lost star running back Damian McCuaig-Jones to an ankle injury on the opening series, only to see his backup, Daniel de Vries, go down to a shoulder injury on the next series. More injuries, ejections, and tough calls by the officials took their toll on the Cowichan players over the remainder of the afternoon.
“Long story short, we had second- and third-stringers in key positions, and that didn’t help us,” Williams commented. “As a team, we haven’t learned to deal with adversity yet, and we lost our focus. I did a poor job of coaching because we were dealing with mental focus issues versus scheme issues that we could have corrected.”
The Bulldogs will get at least two, maybe three players back from injuries for their next game, in Langley this Sunday.
“It will be a good test for us,” Williams said. “They’re going to be a good team. We will be tested on mental toughness and how we bounce back from adversity. As a staff, we still have faith in every one of these young men. We have talent, and we can be very competitive in this league. We have the potential to win it all. But as the old saying goes, it’s 50 per cent mental, and the rest is in your head.”
The bantam Bulldogs played to their second consecutive loss, falling to the Meadow Ridge Knights 23-0. The Knights scored all their points in the first half, and the Bulldogs showed signs of improvement and tenacity in shutting them down in the second half.
“Meadow Ridge came into the game with an excellent plan,” Cowichan coach PJ Shea said. “Utilizing a bruising running game, and an extremely potent passing attack, the Knights were able to slowly wear down the Bulldogs until finalizing their drives with big scoring plays.”
As with the midgets, injuries took their toll on the bantams on Sunday. Many Cowichan players found themselves in positions they had never practiced, yet alone played, but still put forth a solid effort.
“We dealt with a lot of adversity today,” Shea said. “As much as we hate to take a loss, we are proud of how a lot of our athletes responded. Every week is an opportunity to get better. We will just keep working.”
The junior bantam Bulldogs went “beast mode,” in the words of coach Ted Harris, as they thumped the Victoria Spartans 46-6 in a road game at Goudy Field.
Running back Dillon Wilson ran for well over 100 yards and two touchdowns, and stood out on defence as well. Nico Harris scored three times, ran in two converts and kicked for another. Davin Reithaug also had a strong game on offence and finished with two touchdowns. Cody Williams had an excellent outing, with one interception and a tipped punt recovery.
Williams switched out with Harris at quarterback and completed several passes; Ryder Maertz was on the receiving end of many of those passes, and also had a great defensive game.
“Assistant coach Scott Reithaug has made some adjustments to our offence, and few teams will be able to handle the offensive power we have,” Ted Harris said. “Mentally we were ready for this game, and it showed in our skills and sportsmanship.”
A computer glitch was among many factors in the peewee Bulldogs’ loss to the Spartans on Sunday.
A few players were already missing from the lineup, and another new one was unable to register because of a computer problem. The Spartans capitalized on the Bulldogs’ lack of numbers to score a touchdown on the opening series. Getting the ball back shortly after the ensuing kick, the Spartans scored again, but Darren Bright blocked his first of two extra points on the day.
Things picked up for the ‘Dogs after that.
“We struggled again on offence,” peewee coach Opie Williams admitted. “But our defence started to shut the door on the much larger offence of the Spartans, and made them work for the two next scores, coming off big plays.
“I told the players at the end of the first half, that I didn’t care about the score. I just wanted one positive thing at a time. That if we kept trying to do one positive thing, and keep adding that we would start to move the ball.”
Cruiz Heemskerk returned the Spartans’ last kickoff to give Cowichan great field position in the third quarter, and the Bulldogs offence started to move the ball after that. Kaden Backman got some reps at quarterback, and late in the fourth, Jaeden Williams ran the ball to the five-yard line, setting up a touchdown run by Tristan Knight behind the blocks of Bright, Parker Bertrand, Erik Lakke and Siera Grieve.
Bowden Foss led the Bulldogs in tackles, often taking down players three times his size.
All four Bulldogs teams will be on the road this weekend: the midgets at North Langley, the bantams at White Rock, and the junior bantams and peewees at Nanaimo.
