The Prince George Polars knew they were in for a headache trying to stop Colburn Pearce from running the football in Wednesday's junior P.G. Bowl championship and the Duchess Park Condors tailback did not disappoint.
Pearce left the Polars with a splitting migraine. He scored seven rushing touchdowns and booted three converts to account for all his team's points in a 45-6 thrashing at Masich Place Stadium.
"It was great, I was real excited to play that game and really wanted to win because that's two years in a row and this is my last year of junior," said the 15-year-old Pearce, a Grade 10 student.
"We knew they were really going to focus on me but they still wanted to give me the ball because that draws attention to me and lets my teammates play and we had some great blocking.
"Their defence tried to adjust for us going outside, so we were able to run up the middle. Against that offence you just want to get as many points as you can and we were able to score quickly."
Braden Reed scampered 60 yards to get PGSS on the scoreboard near the end of the first quarter and Pearce added one more major in the second quarter to put the Condors ahead 20-6 at the half.
"He's a good player, it wasn't unexpected," said PGSS junior head coach Don Williams. "We were planning to fix that but it didn't work out. He's a level faster than anyone so if you can't contain that it's pretty tough. He's a good runner and he's fast and if you don't get your pads on him real fast and tackle him, it's not going to happen."
Pearce's longest TD run Wednesday covered 80 yards. Pearce had another seven-touchdown game this season on Sept. 16 against College Heights. He also plays soccer and basketball for Duchess Park and competes in cross-country running.
"He's a special athlete, he's a pleasure to watch when he runs and he's got the wheels to deliver," said Condors assistant coach Richard Bundock.
With Duchess Park comfortably ahead going into the fourth quarter, the Condors coaches replaced Andrew Johnson at quarterback and gave Pearce, the backup quarterback, a few repetitions at the pivot position to help get him ready for tonight's senior double-A varsity P.G. Bowl Northern Conference championship game against PGSS. With senior Condors' starting QB Kaiden Witso nursing an elbow injury, Pearce will be thrust into that role against the heavily-favoured Polars.
"We lost to PGSS earlier in the year, so we're just going to go out there and play our hardest and see what happens," said Pearce. "They're the favourite going in with an undefeated season, just like our junior team, and our senior team is really just going to go out there and put some points up and maybe give them a scare."
The College Heights Cougars beat the Nechako Valley Vikings of Vanderhoof 27-21 in the junior varsity third-place game.
In the double-A senior varsity third-place game today at 5 p.m., the Nechako Valley Vikings will take on the Correlieu Clan.
