Hyacks hold on amid homecoming scare

The New Westminster Hyacks took to Mercer Stadium in front of a packed crowd for their homecoming game. The estimated 4000 people in attendance didn’t get your typical blowout victory, often seen at the event throughout the years. Instead, they held their breath until the final whistle as they were almost witness to a historic upset and homecoming crashing at the hands of the Kelowna Owls. Eventually, the Hyacks would hold on 28-21 but not without the game being in question until the final moments.

The Hyacks’ coaching staff all had immense praise when it came to their opponents on Friday night.

“Kelowna played a great game and their kids played with unbelievable effort. My hats off to those kids and their coaches,” said Hyacks’ offensive coordinator Darnell Sikorski.

“They fought for everything and kept playing right to the final whistle,” said Hyacks,” said head coach Andrew McKechnie.

The Hyacks’ offence started slowly for a third straight week, having found the endzone just once when running back Nikolas Panesar broke the plane for six. The team has scored just 21 points collectively in the first half this season. A trend Sikorski knows his unit can’t continue.

“We have to find a way to get off to faster starts offensively if we’re going to play up to our potential. We’ve shown flashes of great play, so we’ll work hard to put it all together consistently,” said Sikorski.

“The week of practice really reflected how this game went offensively. Slow start, but better in the 2nd half. We had some good individual moments and ultimately won the football game, which we’ll take, but we have to play better as a team and unit,” he continued.

The Hyacks found themselves deadlocked at seven come halftime. Despite allowing just one score through two quarters, the Hyacks’ defence allowed a major on the final drive of the half and was struggling to control Owls’ quarterback Storm Wynne. With Kelowna starting to gain momentum adjustments needed to be made.

“Wynne gave us some problems defensively as he kept plays alive with his legs, and their running back ran hard and fought for some hard first downs,” said Hyacks’ defensive coordinator Chad Oatway.

With adjustments being made on both sides of the ball, the brunt of those changes fell on Mateo McDonell. With his team desperately needing a spark, the running back and do-it-all defender took over the game.

McDonell was everywhere on both sides of the ball. He could be seen chasing down Wynne from behind for sacks, tracking running backs down in the backfield for tackles for loss, or running into the endzone after breaking and avoiding the Owls’ defenders’ tackling attempts.

“Our guys were able to listen and execute adjustments at the half, and our D-line and backers stepped up with Matteo making impact plays in the second half. Overall, we are coming together, and I am really proud of how our defence is playing,” said Oatway on McDonell and his units’ performance.

McDonell’s two second-half rushing majors and stellar defensive play had the Hyacks up 21-14 in the fourth quarter. With the ball in their hands and just six minutes to go, the Hyacks needed one more big play.

On the first play from scrimmage after the Owls cut the lead to seven, Sikorski called on his fullback. Kah’ri Johnson took the handoff and followed the crease within the B gap his lineman created for him. Within a second, he was up to the second level and cut perfectly to a seam created by a block by McDonell. Johnson called game as he sprinted down the middle of the field into the endzone, 28-14 Hyacks with under six to go.

The Hyacks’ defence allowed a score on the next drive, but made the Owls eat up all but 30 seconds of the remaining time on the game clock. After the ensuing onside kick was recovered by the home team Hyacks players, coaches and fans could finally take a much-needed sigh of relief.

The Hyacks are happy to have avoided their first homecoming loss since 2011, but know there’s a ton to improve on going forward.

“We started slow and then had a number of mental mistakes in the first half, compounded by a lack of discipline throughout the game.  We cannot afford to play this way as we start our regular season next week, against an excellent team like Bateman,” said McKechnie.

“Our defence kept us in it early while our offence was figuring itself out.  Chad Oatway and his defensive staff did a great job of prep this week and without them and their hard work, this would have been a very different game,” he continued.

With nothing going the team’s way for much of the game, McKechnie praised a few of his players who stepped up.

“Kahri Johnson ran well tonight and Mateo McDonell looked like he was all over the field, leading our team on defence.  I do have to call out sophomore Joey Baker. Joey filled in for us at receiver and made a couple of big catches when we needed them,” he said.

Going through adverse situations early in the season always pays dividends come playoff time. No matter how bad things got on Friday night, the Hyacks refused to give up. If they keep that quality while learning their much-needed lessons learned this past week, the Hyacks coaching staff says the sky is the limit with this group of players.