The New Westminster Hyacks failed to find anything lucky in their seventh meeting with the Vancouver College Fighting Irish high school football team.
The AAA varsity Hyacks remained winless against the Vancouver private school, losing 34-21 to the Irish at O’Hagan Field on Saturday.
The loss overshadowed a three-touchdown performance by Hyack quarterback Tommy Robertson and a stellar day on both sides of the ball by senior receiver Tristan Sands.
Sands caught nine passes for close to 90 yards and also intercepted a pass on defence that eventually led to New West’s only touchdown in the first half.
Van College took its opening drive 64 yards for a touchdown and was on the way for a second straight score when Sands picked off junior QB Giordy Belfiore near midfield.
Eleven plays later Robertson scored on a quarterback sneak and Wayne Palmer kicked the extra point to give the visitors a 7-6 lead to start the second quarter.
But on the ensuing play from scrimmage Sands was victimized on a 70-yard pass-and-run play from Belfiore to Matthew Legge.
With time ticking down in the first half, an attempted fake punt went wrong, giving College back the ball on the New West 41 yard line.
Recordplayer of the game Ovie Odjegba then scored his second TD of the half from 20 yards out.
Odjegba, who opened the scoring for College on a 30-yard run, also scored on a 72-yard romp on the first drive of the third quarter for Van College.
“I felt good. Our front line had a great start. As a team we wanted to work to our full potential,” said Odjegba.
Van College owned the battle of the front lines for much of the game, allowing New West just 146 total yards on the ground and Robertson 13 for 20 and 119 yards passing.
“Our defensive line didn’t play as well as I expected,” said Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji, who took the blame for the botched fake punt at the end of the second quarter.
“We didn’t think it was over. … But there was no doubt offensively they controlled the line of scrimmage.”
Despite the disadvantage, New West made a game of it.
Trailing 27-7, Robertson engineered a 13-play march downfield before scoring his second TD from eight yards out.
College responded with a scoring drive of its own and New West opened the fourth quarter, finishing off a 69-yard drive with Robertson taking ball into the end zone from seven yards out.
The loss will no doubt bump the fourth-ranked Hyacks out of the top five in B.C. high school football and give the honourable mention Irish a taste of the rankings.
“Honestly, I didn’t think (Van College) were that good,” said New Westminster running back Julian Ramirez, who led the team with 71 rushing yards. “The thing that made us lose was our mistakes. We got to do our job – play responsibly.
“When we do our jobs, we’re good. Mistakes are killing us.”
Lalji concured.
“(College) is a good team, but I think we helped them along. I don’t want to be one of the best of the rest,” Lalji added, “but we can’t make those kind of mistakes against this team.”
New Westminster is currently in a log jam for second place with Handsworth, Belmont and College in the B.C. high school Western conference.
The Hyacks have a bye weekend this week.
