The Atom division Sooke Seahawks took on the Saanich Wolverines Sunday with the Gold Cup championship on the line. Both teams came into the finals undefeated and were easily the best two teams in the league.
The game was a hard fought game with both teams scoring a touchdown in the first however Saanich scored a two point conversion and held a slim 8-7 lead at half time. The third quarter again stayed close with Saanich scoring another touchdown only to have Sooke come right back and march it down the field and score a touchdown of their own.
The third quarter ended with Saanich clinging to a 16-13 lead. The fourth quarter unfortunately belonged to Saanich as they scored two more touchdowns on a tired but never give up Sooke squad. Running backs Gabe Nelson, Malaki Allen and Dayton Planes were simply awesome busting runs, blocking hard doing all they could to keep their team in the game.
Add quarterback Christian Kaisinger’s outstanding leadership and strong runs and the Seahawks put up one heck of a battle. The Offensive line of Xzander Adams, Mikey Lundell, Brynn Phillips, Michael Widner and Skyler Rossiter did an amazing job not only in the championship game but all season.
Nelson, Allen and Planes also led the defense this game and all season but throw in tackling machines Austin Perry, Travis Robertson, Trysten Schroeder and Angelo Avila and its easy to see why Sooke had the #1 defense overall in the entire league.
The hard fought loss however is not viewed as a defeat but a celebration of the best eight, nine and 10-year-old team Sooke has ever put on the field. Head Coach Darryl Pollock who has been coaching Sooke football since it started is extremely pleased with how hard this team worked all season.
For Sooke as a small community with not a lot of children to draw from, as compared to Saanich and Westshore, it is rare for a team to excel the way this team did. With only 16 players, many playing both ways all game, it’s a testimony to the hard work ethic and team first attitude that these young players showed all year.
Coaches Tony Nelson, Ozzie Avila and Mike Kaisinger dedicated so much time and worked so hard themselves to teach these young men the fundamentals of the game.
Manager Natalie Kaisinger more than exceeded her duties as manager this season also contributing to the teams success.
Throw in the solid support and positive reinforcement of ALL the parents and this has been the most fun this coach has ever had in the 17 seasons coaching football. Thanks Seahawks for a dream season.
Coach Darryl Pollock