It’s fair to say the turf at BC Place on Saturday will not be treaded lightly upon.
When the New Westminster Hyacks and Abbotsford Panthers lineup for their B.C. High School AAA football quarterfinal battle on Saturday (5:30 p.m.), much of the focus will be on both team’s running backs.
If not by design, by necessity the defences will be well-versed in how to minimize, hinder and slow-up the opposition’s ground game. Stop it completely? That’s unlikely.
New Westminster demonstrated its two-legged versatility last week when it counted seven of eight touchdowns via the rushing game. Abbotsford’s ledger features one Samwel Uko, a prototypical power rusher who racked up 380 yards and four touchdowns in the Panthers’ opening victory.
The heat is firmly on each team’s defensive tackles and linebackers with a lot at stake.
“We are not a one-back team and we luckily have the depth to run it,” said New West head coach Farhan Lalji. “We have five guys in the backfield, plus a quarterback who is quick on his feet, so it’s something that has worked for us well.”
It was evident last Friday when the Hyacks launched the playoffs with a resounding 62-10 win over the Mount Boucherie Bears.
The No. 4-ranked Hyacks piled up 480 yards on offence, including 455 via the run, led by power rushers Sammy Sidhu and Broxx Comia.
Sidhu opened the scoring with a pair of touchdowns (15, 12 yards) and tacked on a pair of two-point converts as New West got ahead quickly. Boucherie counted a 23-yard field goal and a five yard run to make it close, but Trew Dancey scored on a four-yard run to launch a points barrage that wouldn’t ease up until late in the fourth quarter.
Quarterback Kinsale Philip ended the first half with a 38-yard TD scramble, which Sidhu converted for a 30-10 advantage.
In the second half, Comia dashed off majors of nine- and 28-yards, with Josh Olango and David Arciaga contributing runs of 18 and 16 yards, respectively. The other touchdown was scored by Andrew Delamere off a 60-yard interception.
“I like to think this is more of who we are,” said Lalji, comparing the result to the previous week, the final regular season game where New West fell to South Delta. “(Mt. Boucherie) was a capable opponent but we got a good start and I was very pleased, although we had a brief lull in the second quarter that gave them a little life.”
At that point, Mt. Boucherie had turned a 16-0 hole into a six-point game, on a late first quarter field goal and a touchdown to start the second frame. But touchdowns by Dancey and Philip put the home side up 30-10 at the half, with no turning back.
Sidhu finished with 134 yards on 12 carries, while Lucas Sabau rushed for 91 yards on 11 carries and Dancey gained 60 yards on 10 carries.
Defensively, Connor Pattison racked up five tackles, while Yanni Angelopoulos, Liam Mackay and Dancey each had three.
New West held the Bears to just 112 yards total and forced seven turnovers.
Abbotsford, meanwhile, kicked off the playoffs with a polished 41-19 win over No. 5-ranked Lord Tweedsmuir, led by Uko, in Grade 11. The 5-foot-9 rusher averaged 27 yards per carry over three regular season games.
The Panthers are 8-0 on the season and played an emotional game last week, its first since the tragic death of an Abbotsford student two weeks ago.
Lalji said there are many reasons why his team has to come prepared on Saturday.
“(Abbotsford) has an athletic quarterback who can throw the ball, they’ve got some good receivers and some big guys up front,” he noted. “They went through that terrible thing in the school, so they are playing for a purpose.
“We had and are having a good week of practices so far and that kind of comes from having done this a few times. It’s a sign that our program, both the juniors and seniors, is doing well when we’re use to playing in these big games.”
The winner of the New Westminster-Abbotsford game will face the winner of Notre Dame-Vancouver College in the semifinal next week.
