Nanaimo's junior varsity teams were both winners as high school playoff football kicked off.
The NDSS Islanders defeated the Eric Hamber Griffins 26-8 on Wednesday afternoon at Merle Logan Field, then the Barsby Bulldogs took to the turf and took care of the Earl Marriott Mariners by a 46-0 score.
Nanaimo District Secondary School's juniors found themselves trailing 8-6 late in the second quarter to a hungry Hamber squad.
"We knew that we were better than that; we weren't playing our best. We had the jitters," said Malik Besseghieur, NDSS receiver. "We've just got to play our game and run our stuff."
The Isles began to dominate the trenches and pound the ball between the tackles.
"We saw what they were giving us and what they weren't and we just attacked those angles," said Nate Stevenson, NDSS coach.
The Isles managed to score a touchdown 30 seconds before halftime to take the lead and the momentum, and totally dominated the second half, hardly allowing a first down.
Jérémie Cheng led the Islanders' offence and scored two rushing touchdowns, Dayton Howard also scored a run TD and Besseghieur caught a 19-yard TD pass from quarterback Cole McGarvey.
The Bulldogs sportingly cheered on their neighbours, then got down to business themselves, scoring early and often against the Mariners. Barsby jumped to 34-0 lead by halftime and were successful at keeping the shutout, their third straight.
Dane Larsen (pictured at right) scored two rushing touchdowns including a 45-yard scamper. Johnson Nguyen also scored a rushing major and Kieren Carreck scored a 65-yard TD reception from North Rainey, Matt Hill recovered a fumble and took it 24 yards to the endzone and Barsby's other touchdown was scored by Cole Smith who returned a kickoff 75 yards to the house.
GAME ON … NDSS will have to travel to play Abbotsford Collegiate in the next round, but Barsby's junior varsity team gets another home game Wednesday (Nov. 14) at 4 p.m. against the Argyle Pipers. To read about Barsby's AA varsity football team and its upcoming playoff game, please click here.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com