LANGLEY 20 VAN. ISLE 13
The streak is over.
The Vancouver Island Raiders' run of six straight B.C. Football Conference Cullen Cup championships came to a crushing conclusion on a soaked Caledonia Park field Saturday afternoon.
Seven turnovers - three fumbles and four Jordan Yantz interception tosses - were costly in a 20-13 Langley Rams victory over the favoured six-time champion Raiders, who thumped the Rams 44-0 in last year's BCFC final in Nanaimo.
It was the second straight playoff loss at home as the Raiders were defeated 51-14 by the Saskatoon Hilltops in the 2011 Josten's Cup last fall.
"A streak is a streak. It's something you look back at down the road and be proud of six years holding this championship. But every year is a new year and it's a new team," Raiders' head coach Matt [Snoop] Blokker told Josh Aldrich of the Nanaimo Daily News.
The teams exchanged blows in the first quarter, the Raiders striking first as Ashton Galloway plunged in from two yards out on the opening possession for a 7-0 lead.
Langley, looking like deer in headlights defensively to start, responded with quarterback Greg Bowcott's 13-yard touchdown pass to BCFC rookie of the year Malcolm Williams.
Mark Mueller made it 10-7 Raiders with a 30-yard field goal on the hosts' second possession, but Bowcott replied again with another 13-yard TD strike, this time to Nick Downey for a 14-10 Langley lead.
Defences settled in late in the first quarter as teams traded fumbles on a damp day.
It was a defensive second half as runningback Kyle Albertini pounded it out in the mud for Langley.
"I think getting our feet wet in the playoffs [last week] in what was initially a close game, a hard-fought battle throughout, helped some of our young guys," Rams' head coach Jeff Alamolhoda said of stealing the Raiders' thunder after defeating the Westshore Rebels 33-0 in the semifinal.
The victory came much to the chagrin of the Nanaimo fans and delight of Rams' supporters who bused over from the mainland.
A 23-yard field goal by Nick Naylor gave the Rams a 17-10 lead just before halftime, but the visitors suffered a huge turnover to start the second half deep in their own territory. But the Raiders gave it right back at the Langley goal line. A third Raiders' fumble, this time by Yantz, eventually led to a Naylor 19-yard field goal to make it 20-10.
Yantz's third interception of the day, early in the fourth quarter, came deep in Langley territory and all the Raiders could muster the rest of the way was a Mark Mueller 16-yard field goal to cut it to 20-13.
"It was a battle," said Blokker. "All year we battled and we missed out. We had some chances right off the bat in the second half ... and when you get those chances in big games you've got to score, you've got to put it in. We didn't and they got the win."
The Raiders, 9-0-1 in the regular season, were considered favourites coming in against the 7-2-1 Rams. Both Langley losses came at home at the hands of the Raiders (41-29 and 34-32). The two teams also tied 3131 in Nanaimo.
The Rams blanked the Rebels in the one semifinal last week while the Raiders downed the Okanagan Sun 34-8 in the other, bouncing back from an 8-3 deficit at halftime.
The Raiders' BCFC playoff loss was the first since 2005 when the then South Fraser Rams beat them 20-14 in a semifinal.
Langley now plays host to the Canadian Bowl on Nov. 10. The Saskatoon Hilltops face the London Beefeaters today to determine the opponent. [email protected] Twitter/tc_vicsports
