Trailing by 13 points at the half, the North Langley Kodiaks kept their perfect season alive with a second-half rally.
The Kodiaks scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat the North Surrey Bears 29-27 on Sunday at Surrey’s Bear Creek Park.
The Bears had scored on a fumble recovery to take a 27-16 lead, but Drey Blair scored two majors — the second one made possible after North Langley recovered an onside kick — for the 29-27 win in midget football action.
Blair finished with three touchdowns while Isaiah Key connected with Luke Chalk for a first-half score.
The rest of the points were converts from Charlie May and a crucial safety from the Kodiaks defence, which would wind up being the two-point margin of victory.
Defensively, Nick Lacroix, Yunjae Boo, Kalum MacPherson and Austin Benzel led the way for North Langley.
Meanwhile, also in the midget football ranks, the Langley Stampeders rebounded from their first loss of the season to post a shut-out victory over the Westside Warriors, 42-0.
Azuka Okoli ran for 80 yards and three touchdowns.
Quarterback Shawn Lal passed for 160 yards, spreading the ball out among his four receivers and connecting with Sheldon Gangloff for one score. Joshua Wilson led the receivers with 70 yards, Gangloff had 65, Adam Rodenstein (15 yards) and Chavis Spencer (10).
Defensively, Stryker Roloff and Noah Chand each took down the quarterback and Connor Johnston came up with an interception. Roloff also had four tackles while Chand and Johnston had three apiece.
Joe Nickel led the team with five tackles while Owen Jenkins and Colten Dejong had three apiece.
And on special teams, kicker Kofi Twumasi was booming on his kickoffs while Dejong pulled off a key fake punt, gaining 30 yards to keep a drive alive.
Junior bantam
After the teams traded early long touchdown drives, the North Langley Bears settled in and defeated the Chilliwack Giants Blue 30-12 in junior bantam football in Chilliwack on Saturday.
Offensive linemen Taylor Bear and Noah Look created a huge hole for running back Jaun Vale while the North Langley receiving corps of Marco Kee, Braedon VanMuyen and Levi Bricknell ran some great routes and provided stellar downfield blocking.
Defensively, the linebackers and defensive line did a great job of forcing the Giants ball-carriers to run east-west instead of north-south while the secondary blanketed the receivers to take away the passing game.
And on special teams, Tyson Hoy was good on three of his four convert attempts.
Peewee
The North Langley Bears put up a strong effort, holding the first-place Abbotsford Falcons White to a season-low in points, but that was not enough as the host Falcons won 14-0 in peewee football in Abbotsford on Saturday.
Despite the loss, there were some bright spots as quarterback Benjamin Evans connected with Evan Hoy on several long passes.
The Bears defence was led by Talon Schroeder, who forced a fumble and had several tackles for loss, while Reece Fennell had a fumble recovery. Aiden McMurtry and Lucca Patterson also had solid games for the defence.
