For a very brief moment early on, it looked as though the Valley Huskers were going to put up a bit of a football fight at McLeod Stadium.
After the first quarter of play, the Langley Rams held a tenuous 7-0 lead on the winless Huskers during the Rams’ B.C. Football Conference home opener.
In the second quarter, the Rams essentially put the Huskers away, racking up 28 points to carry a huge 35-0 lead into halftime.
The Rams extended their lead to 49-0 after three quarters of play and then eased off the accelerator a bit in the final frame en route to a 52-0 victory.
Capping the scoring was a 41-yard field goal from Brian Hope with six minutes remaining in game.
The defending BCFC champion Rams improved to 2-1 while the Huskers from Chilliwack fell to 0-3.
Last year, the Huskers finished last in the six-team BCFC standings with a 1-9 record.
Rams head coach Jeff Alamolhoda said his team showed its killer instinct after a somewhat slow start.
“Any team in this league is always a threat and definitely, Chilliwack has gained strides over the past couple of years in terms of their credibility,” Alamolhoda said. “But what happened was, we’re learning as a team to finish our opponents, and finish our games right, because we’ve tended in the past to feel that games were over before they were over.”
Leading the Rams was the two-pronged running attack of Nathan Lund (seven carries, 145 yards and two touchdowns) and Devin Logan (who racked up 73 yards on six carries with a touchdown).
Overall, the Rams rushed for 336 total yards.
Rams quarterback Dylan Tucker completed six of nine passes for 151 yards,while tacking on two touchdown tosses to his totals.
Bobby Pospischil (four catches for 96 yards) and Seye Akinsanmi (two catches for 56 yards) hauled in touchdown throws from Tucker.
Defensively, Rams defensive back Jesse Cervas returned a fumble 21 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. Brock Gowanlock and Shaiheem Charles-Brown each had a pair of quarterback sacks while Adam Marchetti and Nick Westad also got to Huskers pivot Noah Falconer for sacks.
Once they were up by a comfortable margin, the Rams put in their young second stringers in favour of their starters and Alamolhoda was impressed with what he saw.
“We were able to get a lot of our role players into the game in the second half, and those guys are hungry, champing at the bit to show the coaching staff what they can do,” Alamolhoda said. “The depth of our program really showed and we didn’t miss a beat.”
The Rams will be tested this Saturday, Aug. 15 when they visit the Apple Bowl in Kelowna to take on the 3-0 Okanagan Sun, in a rematch of last year’s Cullen Cup, BCFC playoff final.
Take the Rams’ season-opening loss to Nanaimo’s V.I. Raiders out of the equation, and this should prove to be Langley’s toughest test of the young season.
“They’re well coached, they’re extremely physical, and they did a lot of work during the off-season in terms of their strength and conditioning,” Alamolhoda said, of the Sun.
“That team is always going to bring it and we have our work cut out for us as a young team, learning how to play at that level. We’re going to have to be able to come in and compete and I feel we’ll come away with a win, so long as we take care of the details that we’re able to take care of.”
GRIDIRON BANTER: Weather-wise, it was near perfect for football at McLeod for the Rams and Huskers, with a few raindrops falling down on the field on an otherwise comfortable Saturday night.
