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The Kelowna Owls and Rutland Voodoos will huddle up for two completely different challenges in B.C. Secondary School Football Association action on Friday.
Not only will the Owls be traveling to the Lower Mainland to meet the No.1-ranked AAA team in the province — for the second time this fall — but they’ll be looking to overcome a deficiency that has caught them by surprise.
Meanwhile, the Voodoos, coming off three mixed-bag exhibition games, open their Pacific South Division regular-season schedule by playing host to a struggling squad from Surrey at the Apple Bowl (6:30 p.m.).
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A lack of discipline played a major role in the Owls dropping a 14-12 decision to the visiting Abbotsford Panthers in their first regular-season game of the season on Friday. And that is the major topic of conversation at the Kelowna Secondary School team’s practices this week as they prepare for the top-rated Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers of Surrey in Week 2.
“It’s disappointing how the game finished because we hurt ourselves with very selfish penalties,” acknowledged Owls’ head coach Chris Cartwright after his team’s dramatic Eastern Conference loss to Abbotsford. “We need to be more disciplined and our leaders need to be better and react to things that don’t put the team first.”
As well as pointing to several infractions that killed the Owls’ momentum in key situations, Cartwright was also alluding to Grade 12 wide receiver Nolan Ulm being ejected from the game in the second quarter for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“People were out of character and I hope we learn from this and move forward and concentrate on just playing football,” said Cartwright.
He added that the game was decided by a late missed field-goal attempt by Risto Zimmer from 30 yards out was a situation the Owls shouldn’t have been in.
“You hate to lose like that,” conceded Cartwright. “But you can’t pinpoint that as the play that cost us the game. A lot of other things happened that put us tough situations.”
Besides the penalties, the Owls gave up 348 rushing yards that led to the two Abby touchdowns and the hosts’ defence being on the field too long.
Some big plays from the likes of linebackers Nate Beauchemin and Nathan Gilbert — with 15 and 14 tackles respectively — kept the score from being more one-sided.
The Owls managed a pedestrian 146 yards rushing, and 87 of those came from Elijas Fedoriuk. Isaac Athans threw for 118 yards and two touchdowns. Kieran Kolton caught a 26-yard TD pass and Colby Miletto added another major on a three-yard toss from the KSS quarterback.
Athans’ numbers would have been considerably better had not three consecutive completed first-down passes in the second quarter been called back on penalties.
Looking beyond the negatives, Cartwright dug deep to muster some optimism.
“I really liked how we rallied after the first half to put ourselves in a position to win the game,” he said. “We had huge stops on third and fourth downs — our defence was awesome.
“And we’re excited to see young guys like Kieran (Koltun) step up when his team needed him. In fact, there were really lots of positives we can point to showing if we just concentrate on playing football, we can reach our goals.”
Cartwright said the Owls are having a “great week of practice” getting ready for Lord Tweedsmuir which is undefeated this fall and is coming off a 27-0 win over the Terry Fox Ravens of Port Coquitlam.
“This week we’ve focused on getting away from thinking about all the hype around us and key on winning battles we face one play at a time.”
When it comes to avoiding the pitfalls encountered against Abbotsford, Cartwright is confident his team is up to the challenge.
“Teaching leadership skills to young men is a process," added Cartwright, whose team opened exhibition play earlier this fall with a loss to then-No. 1 Vancouver College. "We’re using Friday’s loss as a learning opportunity for our leaders and the team as a whole. We learned a lot through that game and I’m sure our leaders are going to grow from this.”
Meanwhile, at Rutland Secondary School, Voodoos’ head coach Pete McCall has witnessed plenty of progress through the team’s three preseason games and is anxious to see just how much when they open the regular season against the Sullivan Heights Stars of Surrey on Friday.
“We won big (against Clarence Fulton), lost big (vs Kelowna Owls) and lost in a slugfest (to South Kamloops), so that makes for a good learning experience for both the players and the coaches,” said McCall, following the Voodoos 28-25 defeat at the hands of South Kam on Friday at the Apple Bowl.
“Those tough games against different-style teams (KSS passing and South Kam running) have provided a tonne of development and coachable moments. We saw a bit of everything. We couldn’t have asked for better matchups for preseason, but now it counts and we have to get rolling.”
McCall added he hasn’t been disappointed about much so far but he admits it’s painful having to call guys out on so many errors.
“But that’s how it goes early in the year . . . and it’s a real testament to how much time and effort goes into a football season.”
The Voodoos’ latest test of the will saw the lead change hands six times in the game against South Kamloops, the No. 5-ranked team in the AA division.
Ahead 19-4 at the half and 25-21 after three quarters, the Voodoos gave up the winning Titans touchdown early in the fourth quarter against SKS, anchored by big and productive running backs.
Rutland fought back with a surge on what would be their final drive of the game. From their 10-yard line, the Voodoos marched to the Titans’ 30, only to come up short with two minutes remaining on a fourth-down and 12 to go.
Quarterback Liam Attwood came through with a solid performance, completing 17 of 28 passes for 211 yards that included and touchdown tosses to Kyron Konkin (three catches for 74 yards) and Brad Koebel (two catches for 23). Ryan Dovedoff led the team in passing yardage with 73 on five catches.
Along the ground, Jhavoun Blake scampered 83 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown while Attwood kept the ball eight times and ran for 55 yards and a TD. Koebel, one of the Voodoos’ most consistent, resilient and versatile players thus far, contributed three runs for 27 yards. He also intercepted a pass on the first South Kam drive to set up a Rutland TD and finished with four tackles.
Grade 10 linebacker Kai Brydon had an eye-opening game, leading the Voodoos with eight tackles while Konkin had six takedowns to go along with five by the always-reliable Prince Monongdo and four each from Koebel, Dovedoff and Dan Tran, who also had a pick on defence.
Looking ahead to the game against Sullivan Heights, coach McCall is hoping his team can build some momentum to start the regular season.
“Sullivan is a second-year team that struggled in the pre-season, so this should be a good first game for us to get off and running. The focus this week has been self-scouting from last week’s game and making the necessary corrections. We need to tackle better as a team and be better on both the offensive and defensive lines.
“We’re still moving puzzle pieces into place. Friday should be a breakout night.”
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