You’ve got to feel for the Prince George Kodiaks.
They’re playing in one heckuva tough junior football league.
The Kodiaks started their fourth season in the BC Football Conference at home July 19 with a 20-point loss to the Westshore Rebels, currently ranked the fourth-ranked team in Canada.
After a win the following week in Kamloops, the Kodiaks took on the defending league-champion Okanagan Sun on Aug. 2 in Kelowna and suffered a 35-11 defeat to the second-ranked team in the Canadian Junior Football Conference.
Coming off a bye week, they are back on home turn at Masich Place Stadium this Saturday to face the Langley Rams and this is going to be another stiff test. The Rams (2-1, fourth place) are nationally ranked No. 6.
“It was a nice spot for (the week off from game action), we started against two of the top teams in the country and after a big push for the beginning of the season we’re back at ‘er and this is a big game for us,” said Kodiaks head coach Jamie Boreham.
The Rams lost their opener 39-0 to the Sun but have since strung a pair of wins together, beating the Valley Huskers of Chilliwack 25-19, followed by a 28-2 win over the Kamloops Broncos last week. All three of those games were played in Langley.
“Langley’s a good team, they’re always a good program, so this is a good opportunity for us to get out there and beat a top team,” said Boreham. “Our guys have to step up and it’s our time to start winning games against some top programs.”
The Kodiaks have used the break in the schedule to rest up some injuries and the common theme of practice drills this week in the Kodiaks camp has been execution. The players know their jobs and Boreham says it’s just a matter of showing they can perform those tasks under the pressure of a game situation.
“Execution is big on us all the time,” said Boreham. “If we can do our jobs and our ourselves in good spots we give ourselves an opportunity to not just compete with Langley, but win.
“We love our leadership in Sawyer (quarterback Thiessen) and our offensive line, I think we’re going to get a couple guys back from injury. We had a real good week of practice and the guys are coming together a little bit better than maybe how we started off.”
Those two losses to the leading teams in the BCFC exposed the Kodiaks’ weaknesses.
“You learn a lot about yourselves real quick and your deficiencies and errors are magnified but you don’t learn any better than through losing and our guys are done with it,” said Boreham.
“Hopefully we just come out and play four quarters of football and it’s fun for us and fun for our fans and ends up being a really good football game.”
The Prince George offensive line suffered a tough blow when College Heights grad Connor Sherlock reaggravated a longstanding knee injury in the first game of the season and he underwent season-ending surgery two weeks ago to repair the damage.
Kiandre Williams, a 315-pounder from Toronto, returns to his position on the offensive line along with Red Deer product Ethan McInnis, who also has been sidelined. Prince George high school alumni Peyton Briere (Duchess Park) and Hayden Matheson (College Heights) are healthy again and will return to the Kodiaks’ secondary as defensive backs.
Game time Saturday is 6 p.m.
