Michael Thind opened the New Westminster varsity high school football season with a new school receiving record.
The 5-10 senior receiver caught a program record 10 passes for 164 yards in a 55-20 loss to Blaine High School in Washington State on Friday.
The double-digit catches and total yards broke two Daniel English marks set back in 2009 against W.J. Mouat.
Thind opened the scoring with a 59-yard catch and run from Hyack quarterback Jamie Shiho in the first quarter.
Shiho, who shared the pivot duties last season with Mackenzie Ratcliffe, completed 13 of 23 pass attempts for 187 yards and one touchdown. He also scored one on the ground on a 38-yard scamper in the second quarter that closed the deficit to 20-14.
Shiho finished the game with 58 yards rushing on just six carries.
But the big story was Blaine running back Riley Fritsch, who rushed for 218 yards and four TDs for the Borderites.
“Fritsch is a very good back and they executed well, but we made it easy,” said Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji. “Our run defence simply wasn’t good enough. Our front seven has the ability to be much better, and that will be the focus as we work towards league play. We also took too many penalties and extended their drives.”
David Penalver scored New West’s final TD on a 95-yard kickoff return in the third quarter.
In a B.C. high school coaches poll, South Delta earned nine first-place votes to claim the No. 1 seeding over Mt. Douglas and Terry Fox. New Westminster and St. Thomas More Collegiate were both honourable mentions.
New West opens the 2015 AAA grid season at home this Friday at Mercer Stadium against Centennial.
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
