The North Langley Bears took to the field the weekend of Sept. 3o to take on teams from across the Lower Mainland.
Atom Bears
The Atom Bears were away this past Saturday, hosted by the Meadow Ridge Knights.
The Knights defense proved to be a challenge for the visiting Bears, and despite their efforts they fell to the Knights 40-8.
The Bears’ defensive line tried to hold off the Knights with #23 Levi Mangroo, #29 Callum Berkey and #55 Zion Miller all working together to make some great tackles. The Bears host Meadow Ridge Knights at home next week.
Junior Bantam
The North Langley Junior Bantam Bears faced the visiting Abbotsford Falcons under the lights at McLeod Athletic Park the evening of Sept. 29. The Bears took on a Falcons team that was intimidating in size to try and extend their winning streak to four in a row.
An enormous Falcon’s defense that seemed to blitz the Bears at every opportunity was staved off when the Bears went to a shotgun offense with center #64 Noah Look consistently putting the ball in the hands of QB #16 Owen Sieben.
The extra space from the shotgun seemed to give the Bears more time to set up a the ground game with strong inside running from #31 Ryan Goeson, #35 Lance Barker, and #17 Jordon Tomica, as well as two 50-plus yard touchdown runs by #20 Juan Valie.
The Bears kept the Falcons on their heels when they moved from the running game to airing the ball out with some great receptions, including a play that had #3 Grayson Gehrer beat his defender and make a difficult catch look easy with a 40 yard touchdown.
Although the Bears offense played well it was the Bears defense that seemed to steal the show.
An outsized Bears defense saw amazing second efforts and relentless fight by defensive linemen #60 Danny Lambert, #33 James Avilov, #63 Ian McRitchie, and #99 Hunter Patterson pushing and clawing in the trenches creating opportunities for teammates #55 Nicholas Reimer and #71 Ethan Sledding to crush the Falcon’s quarterback and backs behind the line of scrimmage.
When the Falcons were able to run the ball past the Bears’ defensive line they were met by linebackers #25 Matthew Vandas, #11 Jordan Williams, and #89 Kayden Bell.
Bell stood out on this day as he seemed to be one step ahead of the Falcons with hard hitting tackles and knocking down passes from intended receivers. The Falcons passing game was shut down by Bears #89 Bell and #23 Matheiu Gale who each had an interception on this day with #23 Gale running his back for a 55 yard pick six.
It was a great team effort by the Bears winning 31-0 over the Falcons.
Bantam
The North Langley Bantam team was in Vancouver for an early Sunday morning game that began with Jackson Carlson getting a fumble recovery. Wide receiver Callum Middleton made a spectacular dive catch for a Bears first down.
Coltrane Davyduck’s outside running helped move the ball down the field as well as Mitchell Gibbs energetic punt return’s helped to keep the team motivated.
Chris Morrison, Ethan Holland, Luke Sommerville, and Ciaran Davies were just a few on defence that worked hard to shut down Westside’s offence. Jordan Small demonstrated his impressive tackling skills and Bears quarterback Jessie Nielsen out maneuvered the Westside defence with an awesome spin move. Kaleb Reemeyer was able to run the ball in for the Bears only touchdown of the game, leaving it a 16-6 game.
Midget
The North Langley Kodiaks battled the Victoria Spartans on a beautiful sunny day at Westhills Stadium in Langford, BC. The Victoria Spartans started with a strong defense in the first quarter slowing the run game for the Kodiaks however the offense was not able to withstand the Kodiaks own defense as Charlie May ran back an interception for a 55 yard TD followed by a convert bringing the score to 7-0. A 30 yard field goal shortly after by May brought the score up to 10-0 for Kodiaks.
The Kodiaks devastating defense tackles were led by Rhiley Deboer, Kalum MacPherson, Yunjae Boo, Nolan Speers, and Mason Block. Leading in QB sacks was Ryan Barthelson and Timothy Janke drove back any chance of the Spartans scoring a touchdown.
Drey Blair, Ethan Bernardin & Jared Slater made great gains on the run game marching the ball downfield. Blair’s 70 yard run into the end zone left the Spartans defense reeling. Mike Huggan received a pass from Austin Balzer for a new first down followed by another 18 yard run by Bernardin for a new series. A 20 yard touchdown pass from Balzer to Adam Brass with another great convert by May brought the score to 24-0. Another pass from Balzer was tipped by the defense into the waiting arms of receiver Alex Henderson running in for the touchdown bumping the score up to 30-0 at the half.
Ryan Barthelson ran the kick return for 75 yards for another touchdown with conversion bringing the score to 37-0. Ethan Croome had a huge tackle causing a fumble which was recovered by Mason Block for a new offensive series. Isaiah Key threw a 35 yard pass in the end zone to Adam Brass with conversion for a new score of 44-0. David Wegert and Michael Huggan received passes from Austin Balzer for gains up the field and finally a TD pass to Brendan Piegsa brought the final score to 50-0.
The undefeated North Langley Kodiaks will face their also unbeaten cross-town rivals, the Langley Stampeders at their next home game at McLeod Athletic Park at 5:30 p.m. on Sat. Oct 7.