The Timberline Wolves football club finished the 2011 regular season with a strong 30-6 win over the Edward Milne Wolverines in Sooke on Saturday.
“Last year we went down there and it took until the overtime shootout to win the game, we did not want to make that mistake this year,” said Timberline Head Coach Martin Jaunzemis. “Our focus all week was to not underestimate them (Milne) and to deal with their blitz, we put points on the board early and that gave us control of the game.”
Timberline would drive down the field on the opening possession with a combination of Mike Weston running the ball, and Dylan Tucker short passing the ball to score the first six points of the game.
“That first drive was all about us telling them that if you live by the blitz, you are going to die by the blitz, we planned for it, we had confidence in our strategy, we attacked it, and by the end of the drive Milne changed their defence away from the blitz,” Jaunzemis said. “That allowed us to run our normal stuff for the rest of the game.” Timberline QB Dylan Tucker connected with wide receiver Greg Perry for a 70-yard pass and run to put Timberline on top of a 14-0 half time lead.
Milne would draw close to the Wolves by scoring their only six points early in the fourth quarter before Timberline added another two scores. Defensive Co-ordinator Steve Koehler identified MLB’er James Danylchuck and rookie cornerback Aiden Edinborough as having played their best defensive games for the Wolves.
Johnathon Evenson, Chris Lund and Rob
Vlaj would combine with Tucker and Weston to keep the Wolverines off balance for the second half of the game.
“All these guys had big contributions either catching or running to keep the ball moving and momentum in our favour,” Jaunzemis said.
“We played a good game, but it took us a while to shake off the rust of the unexpected bye week. We did not play our best against Belmont the week before that, so we needed to get our confidence back. We made some mistakes, dropped some balls, and threw a few interceptions on Saturday. We need to put that behind us now and move forward and play the kind of football we are capable of,” said the Wolves Head coach in challenging his team to a great practice week heading into the playoffs.
Timberline will now host GP Vanier this Saturday at 12:55 p.m at Timberline in its first playoff game.
“We cannot underestimate Vanier, yes we beat them once, but that means nothing now. In their minds they played us close, had a halftime lead and they will be gunning for us on Saturday. We need to be better than the last time,” Jaunzemis said.
