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Sun Devils outlast Notre Dame to stay perfect

Grade 12 receiver Evan Paterson now has a province leading 12 touchdown catches after big night in Burnaby
football
Evan Paterson had four touchdown catches Friday night to lead the South Delta Sun Devils to a wild 48-40 win over the Notre Dame Jugglers to stay unbeaten on the season

Evan Paterson continued his assault on the school record book and the South Delta Sun Devils needed every one of his explosive plays on Friday night in Burnaby.

The standout Grade 12 receiver hauled in touchdown pass of 32, 21, 14 and 20-yards to lead the No. 2 ranked Sun Devils to a wild 48-40 win over the Notre Dame Jugglers to remain unbeaten on the season and in Western AAA Conference play (4-0-0). Paterson now has province-leading 12 TD catches with still three regular season games remaining. He finished the evening with 12 catches for 207 yards.

“He runs good routes and has excellent hands,” said Sun Devils head coach Ray Moon. “Once he has the ball he is a great power runner too.”

Paterson looked to have put the game out of reach with a third quarter interception that was returned 103-yards for a major. Instead, the interception was wiped out on an illegal block that resulted in a safety for the Jugglers since the infraction took place in the end zone. A potential 26-point lead was instead down to 16 and Notre Dame scored on its next  possession to make it 34-26.

Another interception for a touchdown — this time by Ben McDonald — was also nullified on an illegal block. The Devils would ultimately need majors from Paterson and Damon Badenhorst, on a four-yard run, to seal the victory.

“That was one strange third quarter where twice it looked like we had put the game away with interceptions,” said Moon. “To have the first interception go from a touchdown for us to a safety for them is something I had never seen before.”

The Sun Devils also needed a big outing from McDonald who threw for 303 yards and five touchdowns. The other score was a 14-yard strike to Ethan Troniak while he also found the end zone on a 10-yard run.

The game was reminiscent to a couple of seasons ago when South Delta needed plenty of points to win games.

“We stacked the box to shut down the run and they took us deep three or four times instead,” said Moon. “It’s something we are not overly concerned about but do we need to do a better job wrapping up when it comes to tackling. That’s something we will be working on.

Bennett Stoilen led the South Delta defensive effort with 12 tackles.

The Sun Devils head to Victoria Friday to take on winless Belmont (0-4-0) before hosting Mt. Doug (2-2-0) and traveling to New West (4-0-0) to close out the regular season. 

End Zone…

The Junior Varsity Sun Devils continued their unbeaten season (6-0-0) with a 49-20 win over Handsworth on Thursday at Dennison Park. They also travel to Belmont this week in search of their third straight conference win.