After an up-and-down regular season, the Junior Varsity Sun Devils football season came to a crashing conclusion at the hands of Coquitlam’s Centennial Centaurs.
A three-week break did South Delta no favours as the team looked rusty and unprepared in the 40-8 drubbing last Wednesday at Minoru Park in Richmond.
“Our tackling was atrocious,” said head coach Scott Martens. “Had we tackled better it was a much different game, but not playing a meaningful game since Seaquam I think really hit us.
I felt that we had turned a corner as team that week and we were playing really well together. We started to understand the concepts both on both sides of the ball.”
Centennial scored first following a blocked punt and capitalized on another special team’s miscue to go up two scores despite only having about 15 yards on offence.
“Their defence kept bringing pressure and we just did a poor job blocking,” said Martens.
Faced with a 33-0 deficit at halftime and the weather turning into a driving rain and windstorm, the prospect of a comeback was daunting.
But South Delta managed to outscore Centennial 8-7 in the second half.
“This team is a much different team from last year’s team that made it to the provincial final,” said Martens. “That team relied only on Grade 10s for our run, where as this year’s team had significant contributors in Grade 9 including our quarterback, top three wide-receivers, our starting corners, as well as a strong group of linebackers and defensive ends hat were really pushing our starters as the year progressed.
“Next year’s returning players should be a promising group moving forward. Many of those players will continue to practice with the senior team and will be exposed to a potential championship run.”
