Mark Black started like a house on fire in the first and third quarters Saturday afternoon and Wyatt Gray torched the Kamloops Broncos' offensive line all game long to ignite the Westshore Rebels's 34-21 victory before a sparse, but appreciative crowd at Bear Mountain Stadium.
Unofficially, Black - who regained his starting quarterback position for the Rebs - threw for four touchdowns passes and Gray had 3 1 /2 quarterback sacks while running-back Greg Morris scorched the Broncos for 143 yards along the ground in B.C. Football Conference play.
If it wasn't for the all-too-familiar penalties and turnovers, it could have been a lot worse for the now 1-2 Broncos, while the Rebels improve to 2-1.
"It's always good when we can win in front of our home fans, especially after that first week [loss to the Vancouver Island Raiders]," said Gray, a six-footfive, 235-pound defensive lineman from Calgary, who has family in the area.
"They deserved it and we gave them a pretty good show."
Gray, in particular, who created havoc on the Broncos' offensive line, as did Sam Narkaj who had a QB sack, as did linebackers Nicholas Swaby and Chris Pastro.
"[Gray] was a beast," said Rebels' head coach John Cardilicchia. "So was Sam. Our defensive line played its best game of the year and our linebackers were flying around.
"I was really pleased with the overall play of the defence. There wasn't a drive where they just drove the field on us. It was usually something off penalties or turnovers."
Offensively, Black opened the game with four straight completions, including a wobbly 36-yard touchdown strike to Eric Eggleston (his fifth major of the season). Quinn Van Gylswyk nailed a 43-yard field goal to make it 10-0 Rebels just 9: 19 in.
The Broncos responded with a pair of Aaron Smit field goals of 40 and 37 yards to cut it to 10-6 at the half. But it could have been much worse as Morris had an 85-yard TD run called back on a holding penalty.
An offside call on Vinnie Cannata also brought back what would have been a second Eggleston touchdown.
"We would have liked to not have slowed down in the second quarter. You can't have bad penalties costing you touchdowns," said Black. "You cant do that against good teams or later in the playoffs.
"We're moving in the right direction, though," added Black, who completed seven of his first nine passes, then finished eight-for-15 in completions for 137 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the first half. He remained poised for the second half, connecting on his first five tosses, including 12-and three-yard TD strikes to Morris and Fikreiwnet Yitna by 9: 08 of the third quarter.
Black would add one more touchdown strike on a 25-yard swing pass to Morris (his second major of the game) and finished the game 16-of-28 in passing for 230 yards, four TDs and an interception (unofficially).
Quarterback Jesse Neufeld scrambled for a late 14-touchdown run with 35 seconds remaining and added a two-point conversion, and Mike McMaster had an earlier two-yard major score for the Broncos.
Van Gylswyk also added a 26-yard field goal for the Rebs, who lost running-back Niles Goguen early to a leg injury, but received yeoman work out of rookie backup Connor Willis, who finished with 32 yards on six carries.
A lot more stats were left off the sheet because of the penalties and turnovers. Rebels' defensive back Quincy Van De Cruize made some key plays, but also took two foolish roughing penalties.
"Dumb penalties and turnovers, stuff that we can't afford to do, we're not good enough to play that kind of football," stressed Cardilicchia.
"We just need to come out like we did in the first quarter and third quarters and play like that for four full ones. I told them, in no uncertain terms, we're going to adjust this penalty issue because we can't go on like that any more."
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