The Mission Roadrunners punched their ticket to the B.C. AA high school football semifinals on Friday, knocking off the Frank Hurt Hornets of Surrey 25-6 at W.J. Mouat Secondary.
With the Hornets preoccupied with stopping the perimeter runs of speedster Jesse Walker, who was so effective in a 33-7 win over Ballenas the previous week, Roadrunners quarterback Evan Horton took advantage. He rushed for 101 yards and two touchdowns, and added 95 yards through the air with a scoring pass to Walker.
Wayde Carpenter rounded out the scoring with a 16-yard TD run, while defensive standouts included Horton (five tackles), Landon Rayburn (three tackles, one sack) and Cole Webster (two tackles, two sacks).
"It was a bit of an odd night for weather," Mission coach Kevin Watrin noted. "It was blustery, and we had a bit of a problem getting the lights on, so we started a little bit late.
"But we did a good job. Defensively especially, we were able to limit what they wanted to do, until late in the game when we had some of our subs in."
The Roadrunners, ranked No. 3 in AA, move on to face the No. 1 John Barsby Bulldogs of Nanaimo in the semis at UBC on Saturday (2:30 p.m. kickoff).
The two programs have clashed several times in the B.C. finals in recent years. At the senior level, the Roadrunners beat Barsby 16-12 in the 2011 AA title game, and the juniors split a pair of B.C. finals with the Bulldogs, winning 33-8 in 2010 but falling 22-20 in 2011.
"It's a pretty good rivalry," Watrin observed. "Our programs have gone head-to-head for the last number of years, and we certainly have a lot of respect for them."