Above all, head coach Shane Beatty wants his club playing sound, crisp football heading into the B.C. Football Conference post-season.
Based on the results of the last two weeks—albeit against weaker opponents—the Okanagan Sun looks very much like a playoff-ready squad.
On Sunday at the Apple Bowl, the Sun pitched its second straight shutout with a 61-0 evisceration of the Chilliwack Huskers.
Alex Bradley paced the Sun attack with four touchdowns, while Wes Geisler highlighted another dominant performance by the defense with a 61-yard interception return for a second-quarter major, as the Sun pushed its record to 7-2.
Beatty credited his team for not looking beyond the Huskers and focusing on the task at hand.
“We executed well in all facets of the game,” said Beatty. “I don’t care who we’re playing, we’ve got to just play ourselves and we’ve got to learn how to execute on offense, defense and special teams. Once we do that, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. Just go out there and run your assignment, do your assignment and do your job…and I thought we did that very well today.”
In his first four-touchdown game since high school, Bradley struck for three rushing majors in the first half, then opened the second half with a 100-yard kick off return to the Huskers’ end zone.
“It was just a complete effort, offense, defense, special teams,” said Bradley, who rushed for 108 on 16 carries. “We came out to solidify our game and show we’re a dominant team in this league.”
Theo Deezar tossed three touchdown passes, one each to Tommy Howes, Zach Regert and Lerone Robinson.
Howes, the fifth-year receiver from Winnipeg, finished the day with six catches and is now just six shy of Matt Scheurwater’s Sun single-season record of 57 receptions.
As for the club’s second straight shutout, defensive back Landon King said the defense appears to be peaking at the right time of year.
“As long as we keep getting better every week, it’s all we can ask for going into playoffs,” King said.
With the Vancouver Island Raiders’ 22-12 victory over Langley on Saturday, the Sun—barring any upsets next weekend—will finish second in the BCFC and would host the third-place Rams in the playoffs on Thanksgiving weekend.
While a first-place finish would have clearly been preferable, Beatty insists his team is ready for whatever situation presents itself.
“It’s upsetting, I obviously wanted Langley to win but at the same time, the kids knew all we can control is our own destiny, that we get one game at home,” he said. “It would have been nice to have two, but we’ve got to win one next week, then face Langley and just get after it.”
The Sun close out the regular season next Sunday when they host the Kamloops Broncos in a 2 p.m. kick off at the Apple Bowl.
