Scott Hoffman rushed for 228 yards and four touchdowns as the Vernon Marauders stunned the Kelowna Jr. Sun Grey 54-14 in Interior Junior Bantam Football League action Sunday at the Kelowna Capital News Centre field.
Hoffman also recorded several key blocks was made good on three of eight convert attempts.
Damon Froste also had a big day nu racking up 200 rushing yards, completing three of four pass attempts for 65 yards and scoring three TDs.
“Our whole O line had a great day ” said Marauder head coach Ron Kirschner. ”Behind the solid blocking of Zach Adkins, Daniel Drysdale, Palmer Taylor and Dylan Morris, our running backs were able to smash through the holes in the defence as called by QB Elijah Warne.”
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Defensive coach Andy Stefansson was pretty excited by the play of his defence, noting that Froste made an incredible 16 tackles as well as an interception for his fourth TD of the day. Aiden Desmarais and Deagan Zimmerman also garnered some high praise as each had made several touchdown-saving tackles and were instrumental in shutting down the Kelowna offence.
The Marauders next face the Prince George Axemen in an exhibition tilt, at the college field, 2pm Sunday Oct 21.
Meanwhile, the Vernon Magnums held off the Kelowna Junior Sun 13-12 in Atom play Sunday in Kelowna.
It was the rubber match between these titans of football and a battle for first place. The Vernon offence showed a lot of heart in the first half but were unable to score.
In the second half, the Magnums put it into overdrive and scored two hard-fought touchdowns and one conversion which was the winner. Brock Warner, at the helm as QB, had a monster yardage game and was responsible for many first downs and keeping the offence on track.
Oliver (Lightning) Harkness sprinted for two touchdowns and got the winning conversion to propel the Magnums into first place.
The success of the offence was due to the brick wall O-line who stopped the Junior Sun from breaking through,” said Vernon coach Chris Burke. “The efforts of Shaymus Waterstreet, Bronson Milum, Caleb Smith, Cortland Dawydiuk, Gage Bateman, Nate Goodfellow and Bradey Dewhirst kept the offence on track.”
The Magnum defence had another monster game, forcing multiple turnovers which turned the tide of the game
“The ‘gruesome threesome’, of Shaymus, Nate and Bronson crushed Kelowna’s O-line and made their running backs sorry every time they carried the ball,” added Burke. “Leeum McJennet had an outstanding game at D-end and had two fumble recoveries. The linebackers had a solid game and were able to clean up anything that got past the D-line. Macgyver and Kingston had a great game at inside linebacker, stopping a few would be touchdowns. Brock, at outside linebacker, shut down the runs going to his side of the field.”
The Vernon Yellowjackets gave up two late touchdowns to fall 42-30 to the Kelowna Sun Grey in Pee Wee action Sunday.
The Yellowjackets converted on their first drive with a 30-yard TD romp by Owen Carpenter. Kelowna tied it on their first drive.
The Yellowjackets’ Anderson Bicknell ran back the ensuing kick-off 55 yards for a TD with Vernon then stopping Kelowna’s next possession with a big sack by Ayden McDonald and strong backfield tackles by Anderson Bicknell. Kelowna then took the lead 18-12 with back-to-back scores. Cian Fitzpatrick levelled the score with a with a huge 67-yard run down the sidelines.
The half ended tied 18-18 on another Vernon defensive stop with McDonald ringing up another sack. Kelowna scored on their opening drive of the second half but Vernon answered back with Fitzpatrick scoring to make it 24-24.
Donenic Zaino of the Jackets then recovered a short kick, but Kelowna had a big defensive stop and scored on their next possession to regain the lead. Vernon then got a 30-yard kick-off return TD by Anderson Bicknell, a 35-yard score on a run up the middle by Fitzpatrick and a punishing 10-yard TD run by Owen Carpenter, tying it at 30-30.
The Yellowjacket defence stepped it up in the fourth with sacks by Simon Drysdal, Bicknell and two more by McDonald.
“This was the Yellowjackets best effort on the season by far; they showed great pose and promise,” said Vernon coach Brett Fitzpatrick. “The other offensive standouts were QB Cole Budgen and O-linemen Arel Ciccone, Ryse Williams, Marco Harkness and Amolak Mann.”
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