For more than two quarters, the Hugh Boyd Trojans went toe-for-toe with one of the most explosive high school football teams in the province before finally running out of bullets to see their playoff drive come to a halt.
The Trojans fell 39-13 to the third ranked Ballenas Whalers in a quarter-final match-up that was much closer than the final score would indicate. Boyd matched the Vancouver Island powerhouse play-for-play in the opening half and was probably unfortunate to be trailing 20-13.
Still, the Trojans looked poised to take a 20-19 lead thanks to a promising drive in the early stages of the third quarter. That's when the Whalers seized the momentum for good when towering defensive lineman Terrek Bryant intercepted a pass from standout quarterback Tiernan Docherty. A few plays later, Ballenas was in the end zone and Boyd never could recover from the sudden turn of events.
"It really did take the wind out of our sails," sighed head coach Bill Haddow. "There we are going down the field to take the league and the biggest kid in the league happens to be standing (where we were trying to throw the ball. Our defence seemed really deflated after that."
The Whalers had trouble dealing with standout receiver Matthew Adams who was behind coverage for much of the afternoon. He made a number of big catches and came within inches of hauling more.
The Boyd pass rush was also effective, with only the athleticism of Ballenas quarterback Liam O'Brien preventing impressive sack totals. He also threw for 333 yards and two touchdowns.
"When you break it down, how many times did we have them in third and 12 like situations and they managed to get 15-yards?" asked Haddow. "You got to give them credit for making plays. Sometimes you are going to make them and that's what we had been doing the past few weeks."
The 26-point difference on the scoreboard at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium was misleading at how competitive and hard the Trojans had played but that has somewhat been there them all season.
They got off to a slow start out of the gate, dropping their first three games before upsetting top five ranked South Delta. Another tough loss followed against Holy Cross before a thrilling overtime win over Seaquam that left them in a three-way logjam for top spot in their conference. The Trojans moved onto the playoffs where they slipped past Robert Bateman 14-13 in the opening round, avenging a 13-point loss to the Abbotsford school back in September.
That result put the Boyd among the top eight "AA" programs in the province and also earned them some overdue respect.
"Our record doesn't look so good because we lost a couple of earlier games we really should have won," added Haddow. "If that was the case, then we would have been coming in here with a 6-3 record and had a lot more people's attention.
"I told the kids being a top eight team in the province is not bad at all. I'm proud of them. It's been a fun year. They came to practice and worked hard every day. They were also fun to be around.
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