The first place battle was won by the home side.
The Vernon Peewee Magnums improved their Southern Interior Football Conference record to 4-1, downing the Kamloops Broncos 33-12 at Greater Vernon Athletics Park Sunday, Nov. 1, the Magnums taking the rubber match of the season series with Kamloops.
Vernon’s defence set the tone early. After a Magnums’ drive was stalled inside the Kamloops five-yard line, defensive end Josh Vanderberg collected his first of four quarterback sacks on the day in the Broncos end zone, on Kamloops’ first offensive play, giving the Magnums an early 2-0 lead.
On the Broncos’ next possession, the Kamloops quarterback’s pass, thrown under duress by heavy Vernon pressure, was intercepted by Chase George, who finished the day with the pick and four tackles. Magnums’ offensive weapon Oliver Harkness capitalized on the turnover, scampering around the defence on a sweep and into the end zone for an 8-0 Vernon lead.
Kamloops scored before the break, leaving the Magnums with a two-point bulge.
Vernon owned the second half, starting it off with another interception, this time by rookie linebacker Owen West who flew around the field on Sunday collecting nine tackles, three for negative yardage. Caden O’Dwyer converted on the next drive with some hard inside running punching it in from six yards out for the score.
Kamloops followed up with another three and out Vernon used a short field to march down and fleet-of-foot QB Brock Warner finished it with a little scamper into the end zone.
The Broncos pushed back in the fourth quarter when they got an interception of their own and converted it for points then recovered their own onside kick to keep the offence on the field. Late in the game, the home team’s defence would seal the deal when Vandenberg came off the edge and pummeled the quarterback casing the ball to conveniently land in the hands of Harkness who waltzed in for the defensive score, his third major of the game.
One game remains before playoffs with the Magnums sitting with a 4-1 record and look to retain their first-place ranking next week when they travel to West Kelowna to take on a scrappy Grey Sun squad who took the first meeting right down the wire in Week 1.
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