Vancouver Fighting Irish vs G.W.Graham Grizzlies

The Vancouver College Fighting Irish rebounded this week after a loss to Lynden Christian in their previous matchup. Taking on the GW Graham Grizzlies this week, the Irish got back to what they've done in every game within the province in the last three years: win. This time, 22-11 against a scrappy Grizzlies team who refused to go down without a fight.

Playing in their last tune-up before regular-season play, the Irish looked to start fast. The Grizzlies had ideas of their own. As Irish QB Benen Curran dropped back to pass, he hit the top of his drop and spotted what seemed to be a wide-open speed-out route toward the sideline. As the ball left Curran's hands, Grizzlies corner Lincoln Glenn exploded out of his break, jumped the route, snagged the ball out of the air and took off down the sidelines before being forced out of bounds deep in Irish territory.

VC wasn't fazed by their early mistake. Their defence took the field and gave the Grizzlies nothing. Flowing hard on inside runs and deflecting a passing attempt away from danger, the Irish forced the Grizzlies to settle for a field goal.

Both teams' defensive units would make life exceedingly difficult for each other until late in the second quarter. The Grizzlies smothered the Irish's offence, not allowing them to get any rhythm, forcing punts and 4th down stops.

VC's defence was just as stingy. Being tasked with defending multiple short fields, the Irish stood up to the challenge and gave the Grizzlies nothing in the red zone, pushing their opponents back with sacks and tackles for loss, forcing a long field goal attempt, which was missed.

A big part of that Irish defence was linebacker Matt Stevenson. The rangy LB flew around the field all afternoon, finishing the game with 10 tackles and 3 sacks.

Stevenson and the Irish defence had bought their offence time to collect themselves and find the formula for moving the ball against the Grizzlies. That aforementioned formula was the Curran and Owen Brunel show.

With 1:40 to go in the second frame, Curran dropped back to pass. He looked off the Grizzlies' defence to his right and with pressure in his face, he stepped up into the pocket and let it fly to Brunel streaking past his defender on a skinny post to the left side of the field. The Irish QB's pass was perfect, hitting Brunel in stride, who sprinted into the endzone untouched to put his team up 7-3.

After forcing a three-and-out, VC had the ball back in Grizzlies territory with just under a minute to go in the first half. On a fourth and long, just outside of field goal range, the Irish went for it. The fans packing O'Hagan Field must have felt some Deja vu as Curran again hit the top of his drop and launched another pass deep inside the left hash mark. Awaiting that pass behind his defender? You guessed it, Brunel again. With two touchdowns in under a minute, the Curran to Brunel connection had the Irish up 15-3 at the half.  

The Irish would take that massive swing of momentum and use it to slowly close out G.W. Graham in the second half. Brunel would grab his third touchdown of the afternoon, this time on a screen pass, to extend the lead to 22-3. From there, the Irish would continue to play tough defensively and run the ball to chew the clock.

G.W. would fight to the final whistle and put up a late score as quarterback Lincoln Boyd found receiver Cody Hagel, but those two Irish majors late in the second quarter proved to be too much for the Grizzlies to overcome. As the scoreboard hit zero, it read 22-11 in VC's favour.

The Irish coaching staff was pleased with how their team responded to early adversity.

“There were mistakes on both sides of the ball that we will need to fix before next week. But GW is a good football program, and I am happy with how our team responded to the challenge of playing a gritty, coached team," said Assistant Head Coach Regan Oey postgame.

With the regular season around the corner, the Irish will look to fix those aforementioned mistakes and be at their best come next week when they take on the Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers.

The Grizzlies have played a tough pre-season schedule, which included two top-ten-ranked teams in the province. They've had flashes of brilliance from quarterback Lincoln Boyd, receivers Ridley Mastin and Cody Hagel, as well as their physical defence. They'll try to use these early losses as valuable lessons as they work their way to the start of their regular season.