The New Westminster Hyacks will take some bragging rights into the upcoming B.C. high school junior varsity football playoffs.
The Valley division champion Hyacks defeated previously unbeaten West division champs and No. 2 seed Notre Dame Jugglers 26-24 in an pre-playoff exhibition game at Mercer Stadium last Friday.
New Westminster is seeded third in the 12-team provincial high school playoffs behind top seed Terry Fox Secondary.
The Hyacks gave up the opening touchdown to the visitors but went ahead 7-6 on Trew Dancey’s three-yard run in the first quarter.
Josh Olango put the home Hyacks ahead by a converted touchdown on another three-yard rush.
Quarterback Lucas Sabau set up Olango’s score, connecting earlier on a 26-yard pass-and-run to Sammy Sidhu that took the ball down to the Jugglers’ six-yard line.
Sabau started the second quarter with New West’s third, short TD run after Dancey went 70 yards on a running play before being brought down on the Notre Dame one-yard line.
Olango scored his second TD of the game later in the quarter on a 30-yard run to give New West a 26-6 advantage at half time.
Prior to the game, the two teams agreed to play the entire second half with the backup teams.
Notre Dame outscored New West 18-0 in the second half and Robertson Yagyog stopped the Jugglers’ comeback drive, intercepting a pass in the final minute of play.
Linemen Yanni Angelopolous and Isaiah James both had solid outings, while Nick McDermid had three tackles for the Hyacks in the second half.
Both New West and Notre Dame have first-round playoff byes this week.
