The New Westminster Hyacks are still looking for their first win over the Vancouver College Fighting Irish.
The Hyacks came into a damp Mercer Stadium sporting a 3-1 record in the B.C. high school AAA Western conference, but came away looking the lesser of the two teams, losing 31-6 to the Irish on Seniors Night on Friday.
Vancouver College scored points on its first three possessions and led 17-0 at halftime.
The Irish had a shutout pending and would have blanked the home Hyacks had it not been for backup quarterback Jamie Shiho, who engineered a last-minute drive that culminated in a 17-yard touchdown run up the middle by the Grade 11 pivot with just nine ticks left on the clock.
“I wanted to finish the play. I knew the team needed that,” said Shiho after the game. “It all starts on third and fourth down. The defence has got to get off the field and that didn’t happen.”
New Westminster’s Jonathan Tomalty gave the home crowd a reason to cheer on Vancouver College’s opening possession, recovering a fumble on the Irish 21-line.
But New West squandered that possession, losing 12 yards on a high snap and another five on a penalty to put the Hyacks out of field goal range.
The Hyacks only flirted with the Irish red zone on two other possessions in the game, while committing six three-and-outs on offence.
Contrastingly, New West defence could not contain VC in long-yardage situations.
“I wanted to believe we were a better team than this,” said Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji after the game. “We had a bad week of practice and it carried over to this. … We played poorly.”
College marched 79 yards on 11 plays on its next possession before scoring on a six-yard run by Ovie Odjegba, who carried the ball 17 times for 138 yards in the game.
The Irish opened the second quarter with a 26-yard field goal off the toe of Kieran Metha after another long drive and increased the score to 17-0 on a 69-yard pass play to Matthew Legge, who outjumped two defenders for the ball and then outlegged them the rest of the way.
New West had its best chance to score right after, with Shiho, who took over from starter Mackenzie Ratcliffe, marching the ball downfield on a nine-play drive in the final minute of the half before an untimely personal foul call put the Hyacks back on the Irish 42-yard line with a fourth-and-25 situation.
In the second half, Legge scored his second TD of the game on a 55-yard punt return in the third quarter.
Alex Akpata, who rushed for 82 yards, scored the final TD for the Irish on a one-yard run after a costly offside penalty by the Hyacks gave the field goal team a first down and the College offence another crack at a major.
“We still have a slim chance of a home field bye, but we have South Delta next week and they beat these guys. We have to get better than that,” said Lalji.
New West is on Vancouver Island this weekend with a Friday tilt against 1-2 Belmont at Bear Mountain.
