Photo courtesy of Jim Motokado

The CJFL season opened on Saturday as the BC Conference kicked off with all six teams.  He's a snapshot of what happened.

Okanagan Sun 19
Westshore Rebels 15

The CJFL Game of the Week and Cullen Cup rematch was a tail of two halves as the Sun got a slim measure of revenge beating the defending BC Conference champion Rebels.

The champs started the game quickly scoring a pair of touchdowns on the strength of quarterback Scott Borden’s arm.  He found both Dasan Greenaway and Austin Lindo-Brow for majors.  Borden finished 21 of 41 for 281 yards and the touchdown.  Greenaway was his favourite target with a game high 114 yards on seven receptions and the major.

The second half belonged to the Sun defence which allowed just one Rebels point after halftime.  In all the Sun “D” recorded seven turnovers and blocked two kicks which would lead to points.

Offensively quarterback Keith Zyla finished 11 of 22 for 178 yards and threw a pick.  With his legs Zyla had a touchdown plunge on a third down play while Kyler Mosley ran one in as well.

Next weekend the Sun (1-0) will host the Kamloops Broncos (1-0) and the Rebels (0-1) take on the VI Raiders in Nanaimo (1-0) in an Island Rivalry game.

VI Raiders 20
Langley Rams 13

The game that officially kicked off the new CJFL season turned out to be a dandy as the Raiders held on to be at the host Rams.

The Raiders played an outstanding road game tallying 299 yards offensively led by quarterback Jacob Laberge.  The sophomore finished 14 of 27 for 224 yards and threw a touchdown pass to Taylor Becker.

Kicker James Parker was nearly perfect drilling three of four field goal attempts.  The other scoring came from the defence on a pair of safeties.

Quinton Bowles made an impressive return to the Raiders defensive line recording a pair of sacks and Shawn Arabsky had an interception.

The Rams used a pair of quarterbacks on Saturday.  Ryan Matters was 8 of 17 for 97 yards and Colby Peters completed 7 of 13 for 74 yards.

Their touchdowns came courtesy of the running attack as Joseph Carter and Brett Westad each got into the endzone.  Carter led all rushers with 67 yards on 13 carries.

Next weekend the Raiders (1-0) will host their Island rivals the Westshore Rebels (0-1) and the Rams (0-1) will face Valley Huskers (0-1) in Chilliwack.

Kamloops Broncos 41
Valley Huskers 8

The most lopsided game was in Kamloops in which both teams had to deal with extremely windy conditions at Hillside Stadium.

The reigning CJFL Rookie of the Year, quarterback Colby Henkel came out flying, leading the Broncos to 41 points.  He finished 18 of 27 for 225 yards and threw a pair of touchdown passes.  He found eight different receivers including Brody Bernier and Tim Solypa for majors.  Bernier caught a game high seven passes for 95 yards.

The Broncos running attack compiled 147 yards led by Andrew Pocrnic who rushed nine times for 50 yards and had a score.  Jacob Tubajon touched the ball four times and rushed for a pair of touchdowns.

Defensively the Broncos held the Huskers to just 133 yards of total offence.

Huskers quarterback Noah Falconer struggled with the wind completing 9 of 20 for 47 yards, but did throw a six yard touchdown pass to Nathan Desnoyers.

Running back Keegan Vicklund rushed a game high 14 times for 51 yards.  

The highlight of the game came at halftime when Broncos defensive back Michael Baerg proposed to his girlfriend Brooke on the field.  She said YES!

Next weekend the Broncos (1-0) will head to the Okanagan for an Interior rivalry game with the Sun (1-0) and the Huskers (0-1) host the Langley Rams (0-1).