The Prince George Kodiaks knew they had the ingredients and the recipe to produce a winning football team before the BC Football Conference season started in July.
Now, after butting heads with the Langley Rams and coming out on top 33–13 Saturday at Masich Place Stadium, they’ve cast aside any doubts they’ve got what it takes to be contenders in what’s considered the toughest junior football conference in Canada.
They manhandled the Rams for three quarters, holding their nationally sixth-ranked opponents off the scoreboard to build an insurmountable lead that they held — despite a fourth-quarter rally that came a bit too late from a group of Langley ball-carriers who finally found some holes in the Prince George defence.
It was a confidence-building win for a team that’s never before been in the hunt for a playoff spot, and they did it in front of the home fans, who waited three weeks to see the Kodiaks play on home turf.
“This feels so good, this team worked so hard through the bye week and it feels so good to honour the fans with this win,” said Kodiaks quarterback Sawyer Thiessen.
“Just when they were trying to fight for that momentum we get that pick-six (from Prince George native Dillon Piddocke) and that’s a dagger — we just had to finish the game.”
As dominant as they were in the first 30 minutes, they couldn’t find their finish until the third quarter, scoring three touchdowns in that frame to take a 26–0 lead.
Piddocke, a rookie defensive back who earned his high school stripes at College Heights, picked off a Tristan Clarke pass and ran it back 65 yards virtually untouched — the first interception and touchdown of his four-game BCFC career.
“I’ve seen that in film so many times, I’ve been dreaming about that play and I finally brought it into fruition,” said the 17-year-old Piddocke. “I’ve seen that in my head so many times, I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do, help the team win.
“It starts with the run game and ends with the defence. It was a must-win and it’s about belief. We did what we were supposed to do.”
Piddocke’s run to paydirt came after College Heights grad Quinn Neukomm hooked up with Thiessen for a 19-yard touchdown catch — the first for Neukomm, who made the switch from quarterback to receiver last season.
The Kodiaks’ first major of the night — a 10-yard strike from Thiessen to Ben Fehr — was set up by Carson Briere’s 42-yard catch that moved the ball to the Langley 12.
“We came out flying in the third quarter. We knew it was just the little things in the first half that kept killing drives and momentum,” said Thiessen, 22. “The defence stood firm the entire game and we were just able to put up some points in the third quarter to give them some relief. (The Rams) had zip and it was quite fun to watch — two-and-out after two-and-out, boy oh boy, that gets our offence rolling. What a performance from them. When you get field position it makes it a whole lot easier to score.”
The Kodiaks, Rams and Vancouver Island Raiders (25–11 losers Saturday to the Westshore Rebels) are now tied with identical 2–2 records. With their head-to-head win over the Rams, the Kodiaks leapfrogged Langley to move into a playoff position. Saturday’s game marked the first time in their four seasons the Kodiaks have beaten the Rams.
“It was a good game, a good result — we’re a different team,” said Kodiaks head coach Jamie Boreham. “I think this is a game that lets our guys believe who they are.
“I’m not overly happy with how we finished the game, so we have to clean up that stuff. But we won offensively, we had things we wanted executed and our defence had a heckuva three quarters. I’m proud of the guys and how they responded after losing to Kelowna.”
The Rams got their run game in gear in the fourth quarter, relying on the frenetic legs of Damon Badenhorst and Bruce Jones to finally break the goose egg. They generated five first downs on that drive, capped by a 10-yard rush from Jones that made it a 26–6 count with 7:29 left.
Xander Shane, in his Kodiaks debut, stole back some of the momentum with a series of long runs that put his team in great field position, and Mathew Sturgis finished it off with a 10-yard end-zone catch.
Badenhorst completed the scoring with a two-yard plunge on the opposite end of the field.
Prince George led 6–0 at halftime.
Kodiaks running back Gavin Halvorson had a great game rushing the ball and set up the first Brady Harper field goal with a 34-yard run. Harper finished off the drive, hitting from 37 yards out. The Kodiaks threatened again late in the quarter after Clarke fumbled the snap and Kodiaks middle linebacker Caden Crow recovered. Thiessen kept the drive alive with a slick spin move to find Fehr with a pass into Langley territory, and Sturgis got PG into the red zone — but a penalty stalled that series and Harper salvaged it with a 32-yard boot through the uprights.
Led by the likes of Jason Kragt, JJ Aboagye and Alexandro Thanos, the Kodiaks’ defence had a ferocious first half, holding the Rams to only five first downs and 79 yards of net offence — 39 on the run and 40 through the air. The Kodiaks’ offence generated 159 yards in the opening half but was kept out of the end zone.
Clarke, the Langley backup, entered the game midway through the second quarter when starting quarterback Palaina Hopper went down with an ankle injury. Clarke struggled to find his rhythm at the start, but his comfort level rose as the clock ran down and he started finding his targets in the late stages.
Solid kick-team coverage prevented the Rams from galloping on any long returns. Harper, an All-Canadian punter last season, met his match with Langley kicker Antwan Maua, who bailed out his teammates all night with his powerful spiralling punts. The Rams were forced to kick it away eight times in the first half.
The Kodiaks hit the road next weekend for Kamloops, where they’ll face the winless Broncos (0–4) on Saturday in the first of three meetings with their closest geographic rivals. The Rams will get a chance to work out the kinks in practice as they head into a bye week.
