They were outnumbered and outsized.
Though the Salmon Arm Secondary Triple A Varsity Golds played hard, they were no match for the Vancouver College Fighting Irish, who have been dubbed the best team in Canada.
Golds coach Rob Neid points out that while Salmon Arm has 23 players on its roster, Vancouver College has 50. The Vancouver players are also big, with at least a dozen players over 230 pounds, he said.
“They beat us, but we were not discouraged, we were actually happy.”
Neid said the Golds “hung with them for most of the first half,” but midway through the first quarter, the Fighting Irish scored twice, putting the score at 20-0 at half time.
Then, he said, the Golds pretty much ran out of gas.
Players of note were Chris Szbunka with nine tackles on defence and Gavin Petnick with six. PL Lord had a beautiful interception that fed up a scoring chance for the Golds.
On offence, the highlight was Matrix Gathergood who carried nine times for 70 yards. Neid notes that, until the week before the game, Vancouver College was ranked number-one until they lost to St. Thomas More.
That left the team hungry for a big win.
“Not only were they really good, but they were angry. We knew they were going to play really well.”
The final score was 34-0.
This Friday the Golds head to Kelowna.