Rain may have dampened the season opener for the Ballenas Whalers senior football team on Friday but not their spirits.
The Whalers hosted Centennial Secondary from Coquitlam but not exactly in their home field. Ballenas had to play their first home game of the season at the May Richards Bennett Park in Nanaimo due to its field undergoing repairs.
The Whalers dominated and except for the last four minutes where they allowed Centennial to score their only touchdown of the game, the pressure they placed on the visiting team throughout was unrelenting. They ended up with a rousing 51-6 win.
Head coach Dan Smith said the Whalers played to form from start to finish and established the identity they’ve been working on during the pre-season.
“We got off to a good start and we put them back on their heels right off the bat,” Smith told his players after the game. “Then you guys put on the full accelerator. That is so key. Champions don’t let people up. Be gentlemen after the game. You win with class but you don’t let them up as long as the game is going. That’s kind of what we did today. So I am really happy to see that.”
The Whalers got their running game moving fluidly. Demar Hohnstein gained the most yardage for the Whalers running for a total of 104 yards, followed by Steven Boley with 85 and Damon Thompson with 66 yards. Hohnstein and Boley each scored a touchdown.
“We kept pressing and in that, we got some momentum,” said Smith. “What I really liked and one of the big positives is we didn’t let up that momentum throughout the whole game. And that was awesome.”
Quarterback Ben Chomolok connected on three of nine attempts for total of 15 yards and he had three touchdowns.
Other scorers for the Whalers were Adrien Friesen and Kolby Jack.
The Ballenas junior boys opened their season on the road against Triple A team Mount Whalers, despite trailing early, battled back to shut out Mount Doug in the second. However, the young Whalers were unable to close the gap and lost 23-14.
“For a Triple-A team like Mount Doug, to get down in the first half like we were it would be easy to quit and they didn’t do that,” said Smith.
“So that’s a really good sign. We’ve taken a real positive out of that. We’ve patched together a team for that game. So we’ve really taken a positive from it.”
The Whalers will next play a doubleheader on Friday, Sept 14 against West Van at the Beban Field Turf.
The juniors Whalers play first at 11:30 a.m. and the seniors game is at 2 p.m.
