The Langley Rams just did not have the horses to run with the Westshore Rebels.
The first-place Rebels ended the fourth-place Rams season with a 57-14 victory on Saturday night at Langford’s Westhills Stadium in a BC Junior Football Conference semifinal contest.
Westshore — the defending league champions, has now won 10 consecutive games following a week one loss.
“At the end of the day, our guys competed their butts off, they fought and they never gave up,” said Langley coach Jeff Alamolhoda.
“These players have gone through a lot — with coaching changes and personnel changes, people counting them out, it was a lot for young men to handle.”
With their season on the line, the Rams had Stephen Legare under centre. And while he has quarterbacking experience, Legare began the year as a slotback before injuries to the team’s top two quarterbacks forced a position switch in the final week of the regular season.
Legare did throw for 128 yards and two scores — one apiece to Khalik Johnson and Simon Frelick — but was also picked off three times, one of them a 52-yard pick-6 from the Rebels’ Brandon Gandrie.
The Rams also dealt with injuries along the offensive and defensive lines and their top cornerback, Jordan Lund, only lasted a half quarter before his hamstring began acting up.
“It was the next man-up mentality and that is just another example of the adversity these guys fought through,” Alamolhoda said.
The Rebels were up 21-0 at the half before blowing the game open over the final 30 minutes.
Quarterback Scott Borden (14-for-26, 243 yards) threw for a pair of touchdowns and the all-star pivot also scored once along the ground. Trey Campbell, another all-star in the backfield, had 185 yards rushing on 17 carries and two scores. As a team, the Rebels gashed the Rams run defence for 292 yards on 33 carries, an average of nearly nine yards per carry.
Langley’s defence also failed to generate any turnovers.
The Rams defence was led by Jacob Dodd’s five solo tackles while Nick Westad had three tackles and four assists. Isaiah Stewart and Baltej Dhanoya each had four solo and two assists and Kyle Clarot had four solo tackles. Clarot and Keiran Benedito both knocked down a pair of passes.
“The fact they competed their hearts out every single time was a true definition of their character. And they should be proud of that and proud of working through the adversity,” Alamolhoda said.
As for what comes next, the coach said the Rams have plenty of areas to improve in the off-season.
“We need to fix absolutely everything, and that is the truth,” he said. “I can’t describe it any other way.”
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