Two undefeated football teams traded blows on the high school gridiron last week, and when the final whistles sounded, it was the Nanaimo District Islanders at the top of the heap.
NDSS (4-0) came back to defeat the Howe Sound Sounders 21-12 Friday in Tier 2 varsity action at Nanaimo District Secondary School field.
"We ran hard and we didn't give up," said Jacob Cheng, NDSS wingback. "We had some problems here and there but we kept pushing through it and tried our best and we got a win out of it."
Nate Stevenson, NDSS coach, said his team had been looking forward to the big game.
"We knew they were a tough, physical team and we knew we were in for it," he said. "And I think that kind of worked against us because we were hyped up to a state."
Leading up to Friday's contest, no team had scored a single point on ND, but the Sounders put an end to that stat right away with two first-quarter touchdowns for an early 12-2 lead.
From there, the Isles settled down, answering back with touchdown run from Cory Guizzetti and a touchdown catch from Dustin Wall to gain a 15-12 halftime lead.
Cheng's fourth-quarter TD catch provided insurance.
Defensively, Ben Lindstrom made 10 tackles, Wyatt Bilton and Willy Curry had seven tackles each and Brody Uddenberg and Ryan Loggia had sacks.
"It's definitely an eye-opening game for our team," Cheng said. "Our team really needed it in order to see what real competition is and now we're ready to go against anybody."
GAME ON … The Islanders close out their regular season Friday (Nov. 4) with a road game at Frank Hurt.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com