Saturday’s pouring rain didn’t slow down the North Langley Bears atoms.
The Bears were unstoppable in blanking Meadow Ridge Blue 30-0 at Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary’s field in Maple Ridge.
The Bears offensive line of Gideon Bodill, Ryan Heutink, Aedan Ennis, Jesse Davison, Kyler Duffill, and Hunter Dickson was a huge force, helping Benjamin Evans run for a 45-yard quarterback keeper for a major on the second play of the game.
Not Langley after that, the Bears got the ball back on a fumble recovery off a kickoff.
The Bears struck quickly, scoring a major on their second drive of the game, highlighted by three long runs from Lucas Kinch, the last of which resulted in a touchdown.
The Bears led 16-0 thanks to successful extra point kicks by Ryan Heutink.
Langley’s defence was also the big story of the game.
A big push on the line by Dain Onyanabo and Markus MacLeod, with Vaan Stewart and Colton Matheson covering on the corners held Meadow Ridge without a first down on the day.
As well, a 15-yard run from Tyler Campbell helped set up a 15-yard touchdown scamper for a Bears score from Samuel Sieben.
Two big tackles by Spencer Hazelton and Grayson Pinchin with strong pressure from Ronan Langford, helped the Bears go into the half with a 24-0 lead.
It was still raining hard to start the second stanza, but that didn’t phase North Langley’s defence, which held the Knights’ offence to three consecutive three-and-outs.
A fine lead block from Damon Bernemann created an opening for Samuel Sieben, who ran 25 yards for the Bears’ final score of the game.
The Bears will look to keep rolling when they head out on the road on Oct. 22 to face Chilliwack Blue at Townsend Park at 11 a.m.
In other North Langley Minor Football action:
Peewee Bears
The Bears lost their first game of the season, falling to the Meadow Ridge Knights on Saturday.
The Bears never found traction in this game and went into halftime down by 14.
North Langley’s second half was better, as the defence found a way into the Knights’ backfield, with Ezekiel Bodill, Tanner Berreth, Noah Look, and Manny Fotiou coming up with tackles.
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Offensively, Owen Sieben led some drives downfield with Jordan Tomica and Marco Kee, but in the end the Bears did not find the end zone.
The Bears are now 5-1.
Junior bantam Bears
The visiting Chilliwack Giants (Blue) shut out the host Bears 40-0 at McLeod Stadium Saturday, marking the first scoreless result for the Bears this season.
Turnovers had a huge hand in the outcome, with North Langley losing the ball on three fumbles and an interception, while Chilliwack had no give-aways.
Kaleb Reemeyer led the Bears on the ground, rushing for 66 yards that included the home team’s biggest gain of the game, a 15-yard burst.
That came on their first possession, which drove into the Giants’ red zone.
On defence, Seth Mangroo forced a Chilliwack turnover on downs with a solo tackle for a five yard loss.
He also teamed with Caleb Faust to sack the Giants’ quarterback eight yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Two Chilliwack drives deep into Bears’ territory ended when the ball-carrier was stopped on third down by Austin Pattenden, once with the help of Reemeyer and once by Connor Bernardin, who had eight tackles in total.
Jordan Williams and Dallas Pattenden registered four takedowns each on the day.
– Andy Faust