The Atom division Sooke Seahawks football team played the Westshore Warriors on Saturday at Goudy Field in Langord in the semi-finals of the Greater Victoria Minor Football Association.
The Warriors are by far the biggest team in the league and with 24 players on their roster the undersized Seahawks and with only 15 players dressed knew they were in for a battle.
Our Seahawks came out flying in the first half using the speed and tenacity to build up a 33-13 halftime lead.
Running backs Gabe Nelson and Malaki Allen scored 5 touchdowns between them and with running back Dayton Planes and Quarterback Christian Kaisinger scoring conversions it looked like Sooke was going to be playing in the championship game quite easily.
The second half was a completely different game. The Warriors used their huge size advantage to continue to claw away at the Sooke lead and with just over two minutes left in the game Westshore climbed to within a touchdown with the score 33-26 in Sooke’s favour.
Sooke’s offence had been stopped the entire second half with the Westshore big lineman busting through the Seahawk offensive line time and time again.
Sooke’s offence only needed a couple big runs to ice the game however on the first play yet again a huge Westshore lineman smashed through the line causing a Sooke fumble and Westshore having the ball on Sooke’s 25 yard line.
Westshore marched the ball with their massive running back and using timeouts they were able to score the touchdown a few plays later to make the score 33-32 for Sooke and Westshore having all the momentum.
Needing only a conversion to tie the game Westshore again handed the ball off to the biggest player in the league and with the game on the line, the small but tough Sooke defence gang tackled the mountainous player bringing him down less than a yard away from the goal line keeping the score 33-32 Sooke.
With 39 seconds left in the game and Westshore having no time outs left, QB Kaisinger needed to take only three kneel downs to seal the Sooke victory sending our Seahawks to the Gold Cup Championship game next weekend. This will be the first time a Sooke 8, 9 and 10 year olds team has made it to the championship.
Standing in the way will be the Saanich Wolverines a team Sooke tied 13-13 in the regular season.
Both teams go into the championship undefeated and should be yet another thriller for the parents and players.
Darryl Pollock