Mission’s junior varsity and varsity teams have made it to the final four of the provincial championships.
The JVs dropped South Kamloops in Kamloops 55-14 last weekend, and jumped out to an early 14-0 lead after a 56-yard touchdown pass from Jesse Walker to Inderpreet Herr, and a 15-yard run by Walker.
By the half, the Mission Secondary School Roadrunners were up 27-14, with TDs from Bryce Fillion and Walker.
According to coach John Kapty, the boys started to completely dominate both offensively and defensively in the second half of the game, with three touchdowns from Fillion on rushes of four, 40 and 85 yards, plus a touchdown catch from Danny Jung.
On defense, Dayton Robertson had two interceptions and eight tackles, while Peter Kulba had 13 tackles.
“South Kamloops was a tough team. I was happy the way we stuck with our game plan, and finally in the second half, we were able to open it up,” said Kapty.
The JVs played a semi-final match yesterday at 3 p.m. at Burnaby Lakes. They play John Barsby from Nanaimo, the team the Roadrunners have played in the finals for the past two consecutive years.
“We have a lot of respect for Barsby. It’s going to be a challenge,” said Kapty.
Varsity
The senior football team is meeting with equal success, defeating the western AA conference champion Windsor Dukes 21-7 last Saturday at UBC.
“It was a great bend-but-don’t-break defensive effort against Windsor,” said coach Kevin Watrin. “They were very well prepared for us, fortunately we were able to make enough to come out with the victory and advance to the semi-final against Ballenas.”
Evan Horton, Arjun Bhogal and Kevin Wiens racked up 11, seven and six tackles, respectively, on the defensive side of the equation, while Wiens and Horton also racked up high numbers on the rushing front.
Wiens ran for 102 yards with two touchdowns, and Horton scrambled for 173 yards.
Wayde Carpenter made two catches for 20 yards, Jesse Walker had one for 24, and Dylan Melbourne-Kinney snagged one for 17 yards.
The Roadrunners play their semi-final game this coming Saturday, again at UBC, against Ballenas.