It's not often when 309 yards and four touchdowns is overshadowed, but Aldrin Asuncion's supreme effort on Friday for the New Westminster Hyacks paled in comparison to Nathan Lund's handiwork.
The Centennial star scored six touchdowns and threw for a seventh as the Centaurs beat the Hyacks 54-40 in an exciting see-saw game that saw multiple lead changes.
Lund beat the Hyacks every way possible, running for scores from 13 yards in the first quarter, 68 yards in the second quarter, 63 yards in the third quarter and 56 yards in the fourth.
In between all of those scores, Lund hauled in touchdown receptions from 27 and 72 yards from back-up quarterback Justin Buren and then threw a 43-yard TD to Isaiah Stewart for good measure.
"It was a very helpless feeling watching Lund run around like that," said Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji. "He is an exceptional player, but one player should never beat you like that."
Asuncion did his best trying to match Lund, running in scores from 36 and five yards out in the second quarter and 49 and 35 yards in the third quarter. Asuncion's 309 yards on 35 carries is a new school record, breaking Vivie Bojilov's 301-yard effort in 2009. Four touchdowns in a game ties a school record now shared by Bojilov, Asuncion and John Drury.
The Hyacks would get their other scores from Julian Ramirez, from 23 yards out, and Tristan Sands, who hauled in a 26-yard reception from Tommy Robertson in the third quarter.
The Hyacks showed incredible pluck on Friday night at Mercer Stadium, falling behind 29-7 early in the second quarter, only to make a huge run to take a 40-35 lead late in the third quarter. But Lund figured in the final three scores of the night to give the Centaurs their 14-point margin of victory.
"It was an entertaining game for sure," said Lalji. "It's certainly not the desired outcome, but I'm happy they came back. Given what happened the week before, when we got down and didn't compete, we showed a lot of heart coming back like we did.
"Normally I have no use for moral victories, but I'm very proud of the resilience we showed to continuously come back. ... Our kids showed a lot of character and that's something we can build on."
Lalji lamented his squad's slow start and inability to finish strong after taking the lead.
"We still wore them down and had a great chance to win, but two holding penalties and two fumbles really hurt us in the fourth quarter," he said
The Hyacks ran 74 offensive plays to just 45 by Centennial and had 485 total yards in offence, including 425 on the ground.
Defensively, the Hyacks were led by cornerback Eric Teng, who had two interceptions, while Jordan Chin had eight tackles and Jonathan He chipped in with five tackles.
Next up for the Hyacks is Notre Dame at Burnaby Lake-West on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
"Notre Dame has lost a lot of close games, but they have a lot of really good players," said Lalji. "They're a dangerous, dangerous team and for us, we have to take it up a level and we need to be better in all areas of the game."
In other Hyacks football news, the junior varsity Hyacks upped their season record to 5-1 with a 45-35 win over the Centaurs on Oct. 4. The score was flattering to Centennial, as the Hyacks staked a 45-13 lead before the Hyacks emptied their bench and the Centaurs scored three late touchdowns to make the score respectable.
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