A tale of two halves: Hyacks overcome slow start in road victory

The New Westminster Hyacks and the G.W. Graham Grizzlies took to the field in front of a packed house at Exhibition Field in Chilliwack Friday night. The Hyacks played spoiler in front of the Grizzlies crowd, pulling away late for a 35-14 victory.

This game was much closer than the scoreline indicated. The Hyacks led just 7-0 at Halftime as the Grizzlies’ defence held strong. As good as GW Graham’s defensive unit played, Hyacks’ offensive coordinator Darnell Sikorski said his group left too much on the table.

“We had some first-game mistakes offensively. We started the game pretty slow, had some simple mistakes and far too many penalties. We had some big plays, but a lot of missed opportunities offensively in the first half,” Sikorski said.

With the offence struggling to find its footing early, the Hyacks’ defence was challenged with containing their opponents’ explosive playmakers. Led by strong play from linebackers Mateo McDonell, Michael Small and defensive backs Nigel Derasp and Lucas Coelho, the Hyacks answered the bell and kept their opponents scoreless until early in the third quarter.

“The defence played well and executed Coach Oatway’s game plan. They had a couple of big stops and were able to make up for the offence’s slow start in the first half,” said Hyacks head coach Andrew McKechnie.

The Grizzlies opened the half with possession and adjusted their game plan. Quarterback Lincoln Boyd found his playmakers, picking apart the Hyacks’ defence and leading his team downfield effortlessly for the tying score.

The Hyacks’ offence needed to get going in a hurry. With time being of the essence, Gavin Rai threw a strike to Mateo McDonell for a 43-yard score and the Hyacks were back in the lead.

With Boyd and the Grizzlies back with the ball, Hyacks defensive coordinator Chad Oatway changed up his team’s coverage schemes. A couple plays later Lucas Coelho jumped a route and intercepted a Boyd pass and just like that, the Hyacks had the ball back in their hands.

Looking to extend their lead, the Hyacks leaned on their star fullback, who had opened the score for the Hyacks on a 70-yard run in the first quarter.

“Kah’ri Johnson carried the load tonight. He’s an explosive athlete who runs aggressively,” said Sikorski.

“There were a few times he was able to pop free for 30+ yard gains, but what was more impressive was how physical he was between the tackles. He ran through tons of tackles tonight and set the tone for the team,” Sikorski stated.

Johnson showed incredible vision to go along with his power and speed, patiently following his blocks then exploding into the open field, finishing the day with 209 yards and 4 scores on 14 carries.

Johnson may have carried the load, but the Hyacks’ offensive line and halfback Nikolas Panesar did their part too as the team’s offence continued to roll, putting up 28 points in the second half to put away the Grizzlies 35-14.

“We spoke to the kids at halftime about playing with more confidence and settling into the game; fortunately, we were able to do that. We played much better in the second half except for the penalties,” said Sikorski.

The team may have found its confidence Friday night, but there’s still a ways to go in the discipline department. Those penalties Sikorski speaks of are something the Hyacks coaching staff knows they have to clean up as soon as possible.

“We did have emotional challenges and saw more flags than we would have preferred. Cleaning this piece of our game up will need to be a big focus over the next week,” said head coach Andrew McKechnie.

That aside, McKechnie was encouraged by his team’s physical and mental toughness between the whistles. The Hyacks will get back to work on Monday and start preparing for their home opener against Langley this Friday.

As for the Grizzlies, they’ll look to build on strong showings from Boyd, their physical offensive line and Receivers Ridley Mastin and Cody Hagel as the team heads to Vancouver next Friday for a battle against the Notre Dame Jugglers.