Chilliwack’s midget football Giants opened their season with a 28-6 road win over the North Delta Longhorns.
Rookie quarterback Riley Clayton ended Chilliwack’s first offensive drive with a four yard touchdown run, and threw a touchdown toss to Trey Isaac for the second Giant major.
Jace Harden’s 40 yard runback on an interception set up the third Chilliwack TD, with running back Thomas Heuser following the bruising blocking of Randy Nixon into the endzone.
Chilliwack’s offensive line of Matt McGregor, Cullan Haughian, Ryland Jantzen, Scott Hayton, Vincent Giesbrecht, Lucas Macri and Chris Derksen was solid.
Protected by the big boys, Clayton capped off the scoring with a touchdown pass to Ben Richards, who took a huge hit but held on.
Grayson Marquardt was a defensive standout for the Giants, who stay on the road for a game in Coquitlam this weekend.
— The bantam Giants overcame soggy conditions to win their opener, topping North Surrey 20-8.
Tynan Ackah-Sanzah’s 15 yard touchdown run had Chilliwack trailing 8-6 at halftime, and the score stayed that way into the fourth quarter.
After the Chilliwack defence forced a turnover-on-downs, Warren Rogers ripped off runs of nine, eight and nine yards, bringing his team to the Surrey three yard line. Quarterback Gabe Olivares finished the drive with a dive into the endzone, giving the Giants a 13-8 lead.
Olivares added the insurance major on the next Chilliwack series, finding the endzone on another quarterback keeper.
Defensive standouts were Hayden Oraschuk, Joshua Roos, Cash Wich, Brett Nessel, Nat Oenema, Terry Richley and Erik Vander Werff.
— The junior bantam Giants toppled Meadow Ridge in their opener, winning 17-8.
Justin Crook’s booming 40 yard punt led to a two-point safety and Chilliwack’s first points. Trei Lindstrom fired a TD toss to Nicholas Butler for one Giant major and running back Jot Buttar scored another on a 25 yard ramble.
— Chilliwack’s peewee Red Giants blew out the Mission Niners 45-0.
Logan Buchwitz, Kieran Bearchell, Ken Mussell, Jaxon Visser and Theo Smith all scored touchdowns.
Ben Uz knocked through a convert kick, with Nick Beck running in another.
Buchwitz came up with an interception while Daniel King, Theo Smith and Raiden Mastin all produced quarterback sacks.
— Eight flag-football teams, stocked with 5-7 year olds, were in action, including the Navy Giants.
Matteo Reid had two touchdowns in a game against Meadow Ridge Gold, with Tristan Frick and Elijah Reid also finding the endzone.
Evan Fawcett, Ben Graff, Rylan Parks and Lawson Dades were defensive standouts.
— Chilliwack’s atom White Giants lost their opener 36-6 to Mission with strong efforts from Ryder Stoughton and Daylan Laszlo and Yapo ‘The Pancake Machine’ Conte.
Meanwhile, an all-local match saw the Blue Giants edge the Red Giants 22-12.
Tyler Kelly opened the scoring, hauling in a TD toss from Lucas Feaver. Kenyan Reid scored on a 40 yard run, with Wyatt Stobbs also scoring a major.
For the Red Giants, Deaglan Perry scored twice on runs of 35 and 45 yards.
Joey Cyba had an interception and Zachery Hinse recovered a fumble.
