Sun Off To National Final

Story Courtesy Wayne Moore Castanet

Defence leads Okanagan Sun to national semi-final victory

If you need to know whether the old adage, ‘defence wins titles’ is true, just ask the St. Clair College Saints.

The Okanagan Sun defence completely shut down the Saints in the second half, leading the Sun to a 34-19 victory in the Canadian Junior Football League semi-final game before a boisterous crowd of about 3,000 at the Apple Bowl.

In a game when the offence was kept out of the end zone, the defence took matters in their own hands, scoring twice during a 34-point second half to spark the victory.

Trailing 19-0 at the half, defensive end Jarveon Williams set the tone in the second half, scooping up a fumble and rumbling 35 yards to the end zone.

“Williams' fumble recovery set the tone, changed the direction and absolutely set us up for the second half,” said head coach Travis Miller.

“I think they were reeling a bit after that play, we had a couple of sacks and good movement on offence before a field goal and that really changed the tide and the momentum.”

It was a strange play where the ball just seemed to come to Williams at just the right moment.

“I took my first step and I slipped and that put me in the perfect position. I watched the quarterback lose it, the running back tipped it and next thing I know I was just running toward the end zone,” said Williams.

“That tends to happen. It happened in Langley in week one and it happened again today. It’s crazy. Somebody told me I should score today and after being down 19-0, it just happened.”

Not to be outdone, fellow defensive lineman Mitchell Hickingbottom stripped Saints quarterback Matthew Guenette of the football and, with his momentum going forward, grabbed the ball out of mid-air and sprinted 21 yards to cut the deficit to two.

Liam Attwood, who already had a 19 yard field goal earlier in the quarter, booted a 22 yarder early in the fourth quarter to put the Sun up for good, 20-19.

If the Williams touchdown changed the momentum, kick returner Jordayne Falconer provided the exclamation point, returning a punt 73 yards to put the Sun up 28-19.

A pair of Attwood 22 yard field goals closed out the scoring. The second half turnaround almost seemed improbable.

Neither team had much success moving the ball in the first quarter, but big plays and turnovers got the Saints rolling.

Guenette hit Marselio Mendez with a 65 yard strike on the final play of the opening quarter, giving them first down at the Sun 15 to open the second. After a sack moved them back to the 24, Guenette found Jayden Shallow in the end zone for the first score of the game.

On their next possession, Guenette marched the Saints in seven plays, capped off by an MJ Doyle-Marshall one-yard scamper to put the visitors up 14.

They had a chance to really put the Sun behind the eight-ball when they picked off Liam Kroeger, putting the ball at the Sun 33.

But, Ben Pickering recovered a fumble moments later to snuff out the drive.

They would get a conceded safety on the ensuing Sun possession and a field goal late in the quarter to go up 19.

Guenette had some success in the first half, throwing for 189 yards, mainly on the back of three big plays, but threw for just 49 yards and three interceptions in the second half when he was under constant siege by the Sun defensive front.

Kroeger, who was outstanding in the BCFC final win over Westshore a week earlier, struggled throughout the game, hitting on 23 of 42 for 270 yards and two interceptions, about a third of those yards in the final quarter.

“We all have off games. He had such an amazing game last week that he was due for one of those,” said Miller.

“They were the number one team in the country for a reason and I think if we had any offensive movement out there it would have been a much different game.”

The Sun will now await the winner of tomorrow’s Prairie Conference championship game between the Regina Thunder and Saskatoon Hilltops to determine their opponent in the Canadian Bowl.

The PFC winner will host the national championship game Sunday, Nov. 9.