The North Langley Bears have clawed past the Meadow Ridge Knights (Blue squad) in the hunt for a peewee football playoff spot.
The Bears made the jump in the standings on the strength of their 23-6 victory over the Knights Saturday at McLeod Stadium.
With the score tied 6-6 after the first half, North Langley dominated after the break, holding the Knights scoreless while putting 17 points on the board.
The Bears’ record is now 3-2-1.
The North Langley offence amassed 302 yards rushing on the day, utilizing five ball carriers.
Marcus Stang led North Langley’s attack with 126 yards, scoring the Bears’ first touchdown on a 36-yard burst up the middle, and going in for a point after the second major.
Caleb Faust outran the Knights’ defence and found the corner of the end zone twice, on runs of 15 and 20 yards, as part of his 89 yards on the day.
Mathieu Gale added 64 yards, running for two first downs.
Meadow Ridge looked strong on its first drive early in the game, scoring on eight plays after the Knights got the ball on the Bears 38, following a fumble.
But after that major, the Knights’ offence never got closer to the end zone than the Bears’ 21, being held to a total of 102 yards.
The North Langley defence forced turnovers on downs four times, three coming after solo stops for a loss by Brandon Folkerts, Jacob Evans, and Caleb Faust.
A third quarter backfield tackle by Chris Morrison in the Knights’ end zone scored two points on a safety.
The Bears’ special teams made their contribution, too.
On the opening kickoff of the second half, the Bears recovered a Meadow Ridge fumble for great field position. And on the final play of the game, holder Jordan Williams and kicker Tyson Hoy teamed up to split the uprights perfectly for two points (peewee rules).
– by Andy Faust
North Langley junior bantam Bears
All the scoring was done in the second half, as the Bears downed the Meadow Ridge Knights 12-0.
The third quarter was when the Bears started to find their game.
Ben Pascoe intercepted a pass to start a drive that would see Brandon Brynjolfson run for a first down, followed by Evan Rees scoring North Langley’s first touchdown of the game.
In the fourth quarter, Ayden Holloway had a pass reception, and Alex Ronald took yet another interception 35 yards the other way.
This ignited the Bears, with a 25-yard pass completion by quarterback Micheal Huggan to Cadeyrn Barthelson, followed by a drive by Brynjolfson for a first down.
The Knights’ defence held firm, however, the Bears came back with a string of strong carries by Rees, leading to North Langley’s second touchdown of the game.
The game ended with another interception and ensuing 15 yard return from Trevor Paulenz.
North Langley bantam Bears
The Bears took on the visiting Richmond Raiders in a clash of the only two undefeated teams left in the division.
The Bears emerged with a 35-13 victory that gives them sole possession of first place, thanks to some timely passing on offence and a tenacious defence.
The Bears opened the scoring when Treven Baarts hauled in a 23 yard touchdown pass from Jacob Stebbings midway through the first quarter.
North Langley’s passing attack proved effective all afternoon against the Raiders, with Stebbings later connecting on touchdown passes of 19 yards to Alex Henderson and an electrifying 72 yard catch-and-run by Andy Hanlen.
On the ground, running back Zander Bailey encountered his largest and toughest opponents of the season yet still managed to pound out 121 yards on 15 carries.
Pablo Wigwigan accounted for the final Bears’ touchdown on a spectacular 57 yard reverse down the sideline.
The Bears defensive line faced an enormous challenge as they faced off against the larger Richmond linemen, but never once backed down.
When Raiders ball carriers did find their way past the Bears’ front three they were quickly brought down by the hard hitting trio of
Nick Lacroix, Connor Hurley, and Pablo Wigwigan.
Hurley and Hanlen both recovered fumbles during the game after particularly hard hits separated the football from Raiders players.
The visitors were only able to score one offensive touchdown throughout the course of the day.
– by Chris Hurley
North Langley flag Bears
Again this week, the Bears broke into red and yellow squads to take on the Mission 9ers.
Both clubs played exciting games, and the yellow squad finished victorious against both Mission teams.
Flag Yellow
Exceptional defensive pressure was applied by Colton Matheson and Ronan Langford.
Taylen Goncalves and Jesse Davison outran their pursuers for touchdowns.
The play of the weekend goes to receiver Damon Bernemann and quarterback Ryan Heutink.
After evading heavy pressure from 9ers pass rushers, Heutink’s throw was tipped into the air by a 9ers' defender, but the keen eyes of Bernemann followed the ball for the catch and run into the end zone for a touchdown.
Flag Red
The Bears’ Red squad finished with a tie and a win.
Sam Sieben scored the Bears’ only touchdown of game one with a long run on the first play of the game.
Stingy defence by Langley held Mission to a single touchdown to earn the tie.
In game two, the Bears’ offence came to life with a pair of touchdowns by Ben Evans and one for Finlay Johnston to secure a 21-14 win.
– by Cory Langford
North Langley atom Bears
The Bears dominated the Chilliwack Red Giants, beating the Giants 40-0.
North Langley’s offence and defence played exceptional football, beginning the game with Marco Kee taking the opening kickoff all the way to the end zone for his first touchdown of the game.
The Bears finished with six touchdowns, capped by a 25 yard pass and 35 yard run from Owen Sieben to Kee.
Kee also had a 32 yard touchdown run in the second quarter, bringing his total to three for the day.
Keaghan Hurley, Owen Sieben, and Caleb Price also added running touchdowns. Taylor Bear had a 60-yard run.
North Langley’s defence was led by Annika Key, who had her best game of the year with two sacks for losses and a fumble recovery to get the offence back on the field.
Ty Gallinger also added a sack and fumble recovery of his own.
Rylan Middleton, Hunter Morton, Caleb Price, and Manny Fotiou also had some key tackles on defence.
The Bears look to keep the streak alive in Chilliwack next weekend.
– by Julie Fennell