They won, but there was room for improvement.
That was what head coach Khari Joseph learned after his Langley Rams defeated the Valley Huskers 41-16 in BC Junior Football week four action at McLeod Athletic Park on Saturday night.
“I learned that we still have to stay on them in terms of focus and starting a game right,” he said.
The Rams trailed 2-0 after one quarter after conceding a safety but responded with a 23-point second quarter and 23-10 halftime lead. Langley scored the only three points of the third quarter before tacking on 15 more points in the fourth.
“But the thing about this team is that they make adjustments and they are able to raise their intensity when they need to and they finish games off strong, which I like to see out of them,” Joseph said.
The Rams managed nearly 600 yards of offence, but they turned the ball over five times and had 21 penalties for 200 yards. Another area the team needs to improve on is finishing drives as six times they attempted field goals — with Tiernan Docherty making four of them.
Docherty provided the bulk of the Langley offence as he made four of six field goal attempts, also adding four converts and a single.
They also turned the ball over on downs on the Valley two-yard line as well as fumbling the ball on another possession on the Husker five. Those were two of the team’s five turnovers.
‘We need to have more sense of urgency in those areas. Same thing with the defence, being in the red zone with our backs against the end zone, we have to get tougher, keep teams out of the end zone and force teams to take field goals,” Joseph said.
“When we are 20 and in, we have to score touchdowns.”
“We ran the ball effectively, we got the ball into our playmakers hands, we got a lot of big plays and some guys stepped up,” the coach added, singling out running back Joe Carter (11 carries, 125 yards) while the receiving duo of Seye Akinsanmi (five catches, 173 yards, one touchdown) and Khalik Johnson (three catches, 118 yards, one touchdown).
Ryan MacDonald also had a 21-yard touchdown catch and Stephen Legare scored on a one-yard quarterback keeper.
Legare also threw a pair of touchdown passes and 211 yards while splitting duties with Colby Peters who went five-for-10 for 153 yards and one touchdown and one interception.
Joseph said he will continue going with both quarterbacks for the time being.
“We are going to keep rolling with it until someone can take a real stranglehold of the job,” he said.
“But I have faith in both those guys. That is a good thing. Knowing you have guys who can step up when you need them to is always encouraging.”
The defence was led by Bashiru Sise Odaa who had four tackles and one pass knock down.
Denis Oliveria and Brendan Desjardine had three tackles apiece while Drew Belgrave had two tackles and also knocked down a pair of passes.
The Huskers got touchdowns from Mike West and Elijah Falconer.
Langley heads to Nanaimo on Saturday afternoon for a game against the 2-2 VI Raiders.