He's five-foot-eight, 260 pounds, can run like the wind, and he's tough as nails.
He's Wes Black, and as the Williams Lake Rustlers found out, when he gets a head of steam, there's almost no stopping him.
Black scored two tries for the Prince George Gnats and that was all the points they needed to defeat the Rustlers 12-5 in Central Interior Rugby Union action
Saturday at Kelly Road field.
"Wes is a solid player for sure and I wouldn't want to be on the defence against him," said Gnats standoff Troy McKenzie. "He's like a bowling ball. What do you grab hold of?"
The 19-year-old Black will be leaving town in a few weeks for Kamloops, where he has job waiting for him playing football for the Kamloops Cowboys junior team.
The Kelly Road secondary school graduate also plays senior lacrosse for the BX Pub Bandits and he's a national-calibre wrestler who has had offers to join the varsity team at the University of Regina.
"For a big man, he's fit too," said McKenzie. "He runs all day. You need to have big guys who can penetrate the defences and get them going backwards.
"Since Paul Bryant is not out there for us this year, Wes is the guy getting us positive yards and he's one of the big reasons we won."
As good as Black was carrying the ball from his prop position, the game was mostly a defensive struggle as both teams held their opponents off the goal line. Black got it started about 15 minutes into the first 40-minute half, running over a Rustler defender to score from short yardage. The Gnats took advantage of a strong west wind and used a few dropkicks to keep the Rustlers pinned back in their own zone for most of the first half.
But when the teams switched ends at the half, the Rustlers had the wind at their backs and used it to their advantage, keeping the Gnats south of midfield for most of the final 40 minutes.
James Funk scored to tie it 5-5 with 20 minutes left to play. But the Gnats responded with a major push-back a few minutes after Funk scored, Black carried the ball in from 10 yards out to give the Gnats the lead and Brian Tait added the convert to cap the scoring.
Darelle Skinnner was picked forward of the match for the Rustlers, with Black the obvious choice for the Gnats. Outside centre Dave McMullen was the back of the match for Prince George and Jamie Simms was a workhorse on the defensive side of the ball.
"It was a super-tight game and both teams hard fought the whole time - this was probably the game of the season to watch," said McMullen.
The win left the Gnats all alone in first place with a 3-1 record while the Rustlers fell to 1-1. They opened the season June 4 with a 33-0 win over the Gnats in Williams Lake.
"We had a little more heart today and we played better defence," said McKenzie. "We let those guys run through us way too much in Williams Lake. They played a long time in our half but we got some big tackles at key times by some of our guys. We just had lots of guys doing the right things and sacrificing themselves to make the play. That's what we were missing down there."
The Gnats and Rustlers will play one more yet-to-be-scheduled game in Williams Lake for what likely will determine the CIRU team that will travel to Penticton in late September for the Saratoga Cup independent league championship. The Gnats are the defending Saratoga Cup champions and haven't lost at home in five years, but always seem to have trouble with Williams Lake. The two teams could face each other again at the Williams Lake Stampede tournament, July 1-2.
The Gnats will host the Vernon Jackals, Prince Rupert Seamen and Terrace Northmen in a CIRU playday this Saturday at Kelly Road.
