They came close, but the Mt. Boucherie Bears couldn’t overcome the lack of compete and mental miscues early on and fell 36-35 to the visiting W.J. Mouat Hawks of Abbotsford in Week 5 of the B.C. High School Football Association regular season.
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Trailing 28-15 at the half, the Bears, despite losing Grade 12 quarterback Taylor Knoll to a neck strain suffered while playing on defence, pulled it together in the second half to make a game of it. Failing to make good on a two-point conversion with less than two minutes remaining proved the difference as the West Kelowna team dropped to 2-3 on the season in the AAA Eastern Conference.
“We had a few guys who weren’t giving it their best effort in the first half and it cost us,” said head coach Mike Godwin. “At the half, we addressed that and talked about eliminating mental mistakes. It was good to see the boys respond in the second half.”
Still, Godwin recognized the strong effort by Mouat, who moved into a fourth-place tie with the Bears and the St. Thomas More Knights of Burnaby.
“Mouat played well and Lokombo (running back, Nelson) tore us up (251 yards on 32 carries) acknowledged Godwin.
On the positive side, the Knoll is expected to be back as the starting quarterback when the Bears travel to Burnaby to take on St. Thomas More on Friday, while backup Danny Huey showed he can be counted on as a capable backup.
The Grade 11 QB came off the bench to throw 10 completions on 17 attempts for 204 yards (no interceptions) and two touchdowns — one to Ethan Beselt for 13 yards and another to Nathan Humes that covered 66 yards.
“Danny showed he has a pretty good football IQ,” noted coach Godwin. “Especially late in the game when being forced to scramble. He veered off to get out of bounds to conserve time on the clock.”
Knoll and six-foot, 260-pound fullback, Caleb Fransen, opened the Bears’ scoring in the first quarter with rushing TDs from close in.
Defensively, the Bears had their hands full with the almost unstoppable Lokombo. Boucherie safety Hunter Deeson was most responsible for the Hawks’ running back not doing even more damage by leading the Bears with seven tackles.
Boucherie again played without their top running back Jesse Benneke, who injured his knee in a game against the Centennial Centaurs on Sept. 30 at the Apple Bowl. The Grade 11 speedster is expected back soon.
Meanwhile, the Kelowna Owls remain winless (0-5) in the AAA Eastern Conference, having suffered another lopsided defeat on Friday at the Apple Bowl. The young Kelowna Secondary School team fell 48-0 to St. Thomas More.
The Owls are back in action on Friday when they take on Centennial in Coquitlam while the Rutland Voodoos (2-1) play host to the Abbotsford Panthers (2-0) in a Pacific Division game at the Apple Bowl beginning at 4 p.m.
The Voodoos are coming off a 33-14 win over the West Vancouver Highlanders in which quarterback Zach Hemmett threw four touchdown passes, three to Kyle Solloway and one to Brayden Anderson. Hemmett was good on eight of 11 passes for 170 yards and ran in for a touchdown.
Matt Klak once again led the running game with 30 carries for 130 yards while Anderson accumulated 93 yards on just eight carries and led the defence with five tackles and a sack.
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