A three-game winning streak has put the Prince George Kodiaks firmly into the BC Football Conference playoff picture.
The Kodiaks made the 12-hour trek to Nanaimo to take on the Vancouver Island Raiders a worthwhile exercise Saturday when they rallied from a 13-0 deficit to beat the Raiders 22-19.
It was a crucial win for Prince George that gave the third-place Kodiaks (4-2) a four-point cushion over the Raiders and Langley Rams, both locked in a tight race for the fourth and final playoff spot.
Penalties, dropped passes and stalled drives hurt the Kodiaks on the field in Nanaimo, but they managed to put enough plays together to come out on top in Saturday’s game.
“I think the guys did well dealing with the challenges of a long travel and figured out how to go over there and win a football game against a good team.” Said Kodiaks head coach Jamie Boreham.
“We had some ups and down throughout the game, had some penalty moments that definitely hurt us, but at the end of the day the defence figured it out and the offence scored enough to get the win.”
Kodiaks quarterback Sawyer Thiessen found former College Heights Cougars running back Noah Lank for a five-yard touchdown pass late in the first half to kickstart the Prince George offence and on the next series, Taeman Piddocke picked off a pass from Raiders’ quarterback Zach Golab and ran it all the way into the end zone. Brady Harper was good on both point-after attempts to give the Kodiaks a 14-13 lead at the half.
Lank, who played for the Kodiaks in their inaugural 2022 season, returned to Prince George last week from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ camp, after two seasons in Saskatoon playing U SPORTS.
In the third quarter, the Raiders took advantage of fumble recovery to retake the lead. Raiders running back Rhonde Lyle, who led all rushers with 127 yards, capped off a 40-yard drive with a short run to make it a 19-14 game.
But the Kodiaks had an answer for that. Thiessen connected with Myron Brown for a 36-yard catch-and-run deep into Raider territory, then found six-foot-seven receiver Cayle Cowley for an end-zone strike. Harper booted the convert for a three-point lead that capped the scoring.
Thiessen finished the game 14-fo-26 for 176 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception.
Rookie defensive back led the Kodiaks with seven tackles.
Thiessen often had to scramble out of the pocket to avoid the Raider rush and that’s one area Boreham will be looking to improve for his team this week in practice.
“I’d say our protection wasn’t our finest, we need to clean up some of that, they gave us some blitzes we hasn’t seen from them and we’ve got to be better and play football to our scheme and trust our system and stick with it,” said Boreham. “We’ve room to grow and we’re going to have to be better to play with the Sun this week.”
The Kodiaks are now focused on the Okanagan Sun. The defending BCFC champions sport a 6-0 record atop the BCFC. In their only other meeting this season, Aug. 2 in Kelowna, the Kodiaks lost 35-11. In those six games, the Sun has outscored their opponents a combined 277-60.
“They’re the best team in the conference and top-two in the country and we need to find a way to be better than we were the last time,” said Boreham.
“We hung with them for a little bit and we need to find a way to play four-quarters football.”
Game time at Masich Place Stadium on Saturday is 6 p.m.
