Daniel Stratton is starting to find his stride again.
His split leg tendon still not completely healed, he found plenty enough gallop in his gait to give the Kelly Road Roadrunners fits Friday night on the high school football field at Masich Place Stadium.
Stratton, in his second game back from the injured list, rushed for nearly 200 yards and scored three touchdowns, including a 60-yard scamper that capped the scoring as his Duchess Park Condors defeated the Roadrunners 57-18.
"I'm probably around 70 per cent," said Stratton. "I tried to play Correlieu five weeks ago and I thought the tendon was recovered but I split it again."
If he was hurting, he did a great job disguising it.
Condors quarterback Rylan Matters fired strike after strike into the jersey numbers of his receivers.
He hooked up with Stratton for a 49-yard toss and run into the end zone late in the first half, right after Caleb Cruse hauled in a perfect toss in the middle of the field and ran in from 49 yards out, the second trip to paydirt for Cruse.
Joel Bundock also benefited from the accuracy of Matters' passes, scoring on a 37-yard play in the third quarter.
"Rylan is unbelievable, he's the real deal and he's worked so hard," said Condors head coach Mike Rositano.
"He's been playing senior ball since Grade 8 and you can tell, he improves not just year by year but game by game."
Matters was a master at spreading the offence around and keeping the 'Runners defence guessing and his blockers gave him plenty of time to make decisions.
Bundock, Cruse and T.J. Kyriakos each scored two TDs. It was the highest point production all season for the Condors, who improved to a perfect 6-0 this season.
The loss kept the Roadrunners (2-3) in fourth place.
"The credit goes to the O-line and the receivers for getting open," said Matters, a Grade 11 student. "Kelly Road definitely got some momentum in the first half, I knew they were a good team, but we kind of came back in the second half."
Kelly Road scored all its points in the first half and their offence rode on the back of Matthew Pike, the leading rusher in the B.C. High School Football Association's Northern Conference, who was a constant threat in the Kelly Road backfield.
He got free for a 73-yard scoring run up the sideline early in the second quarter to get his team on the board with the Condors leading by 26. Pike also hauled in a Tristan Appler pass and run across the goal line from 52 yards out.
"We knew they had a very large defensive line with very big guys to move and our O-line was moving them and opening those holes," said Pike.
"We actually had a very good game, I was proud of that one."
Teams have been keying on Pike and Kelly Road head coach Steve Porter has worked hard on developing a few new wrinkles in the offence that led to success against the Condors. Quinten Huisman, a Grade 12 rookie at receiver, hooked up with Appler for an 18-yard TD pass.
In the late game, College Heights Cougars (3-1) played the Nechako Valley Vikings (3-2).
