From one extreme to another, all within the span of a half.
The New Westminster Hyacks didn’t impress coach Farhan Lalji with their start to last Friday’s battle against the defending B.C. champion Mount Douglas Rams, ranked No. 1 in a B.C. AAA football poll.
But a 30-point outburst was just the answer as No. 4-ranked New West toppled the Rams 45-19 at Mercer Stadium.
The win pumps New West into a three-way tie with Mount Doug and Notre Dame for first place in the Western Conference, at 3-1.
“Our first half was equally as bad as our second half was great,” said Lalji of the match-up where the Hyacks brought a Jeckyll and Hyde-like persona to the turf.
“In the first half (Mount Doug) couldn’t run on us at all but they found the end zone and kind of put us on our heels a bit.”
After Lucas Sabau’s 36-yard run put New West in an early lead, the Island visitors gathered some momentum through the air – despite not having the services of standout quarterback Gideone Kremler, injured during the junior game earlier against the jr. Hyacks.
Kremler’s backup, Grade 10 pivot Dante Carbone, hit receiver Josh Lucas for a pair of majors to prop Mt. Doug in a 13-6 lead near the halfway point. On the last play of the half, New West appeared to answer back with a long TD pass but it was called back due to a holding penalty. Instead of trying a longer Hail Mary play, Lalji had Rory Anjos kick a 42-yard field goal to cut the gap to four.
In the third quarter, the hosts reclaimed the lead when Prento Durigon blocked a Rams’ punt that teammate Liam Mckay
brought down in the end zone.
Quarterback Kinsale Philip scored on a one-yard run and hit Durigon with a 28-yard TD strike to up the squad’s lead to 39-19 with a quarter to play.
Trew Dancey, who counted a pair of two-point converts, wrapped up the offence with a one-yard line-crasher in the fourth frame.
As impressive as knocking off the defending provincial champions was, the New West coach was all about keeping it in perspective.
“It’s one of those weird games where they were without their best player and we came out flat as a group,” said Lalji. “At the half we had a few guys step up and ask us coaches to put it on their shoulders, and we changed some matchups... The main adjustment was handling (Lucas) and we did that in the second half.”
New West was without two of its stronger players – defensive back Ben Tjernagel and running back Josh Olango.
The Hyacks head to the Island to face 1-4 Belmont on Friday.
