MOUNT DOUG 45 TERRY FOX 20
Ashton MacKinnon, Marcus Davis and Brian Dowds had big days offensively and the Mount Douglas Rams defence more than held its ground for most of the day in a 45-20 win over the Terry Fox Ravens on Friday afternoon at Westhills Stadium.
After a bye last week, the Rams opened defence of their provincial triple-A senior boy's football title with the impressive post-season victory, building up a 31-0 lead late in the third quarter of the B.C. quarter-final.
Of course, the offence couldn't get going with the work of the line up front.
"We challenged our offensive line. We knew this would be won along the line of scrimmage, and our defensive line played great as well," said Rams head coach Mark Townsend.
"I was really impressed by our defence. That was the best effort that we've seen from our defence all season. We held a quality offensive team to 20 points. Offensively, we played well. It just took a while to get going."
Up 3-0 on a Callum Duke field goal, the Rams stretched out the lead with MacKinnon's 40-yard touchdown pass to Dowds in the second quarter. An interception by Mount Doug's Sean Waugh then set up a 45-yard TD strike off a flea-flicker play.
MacKinnon tossed it to Dowds, who then relayed it to Davis on a lame duck pass that was still good enough for the 17-0 advantage.
"It wasn't pretty, but we did get the touchdown out of it," Townsend said with a wry smile. "We've got a few, we don't even call them trick plays, we call them special plays."
MacKinnon also connected with Davis on a 34-yard TD pass to give the Rams a 24-0 advantage at the half.
The two then opened up the third quarter with a seven-yard TD strike, cap-ping a lengthy drive for a 31-0 lead.
The Ravens finally struck back on Brad Lyons's lengthy romp. Terry Fox was unsuccessful on the two-point convert attempt, and Davis then took the ensuing kickoff some 90-plus yards for a score on some more razzle-dazzle on a reverse from Ross Faulkner.
"We run that quite frequently," Townsend said. "Marcus had some great return yardage until he was finally able to break one, thanks to some tremendous blocking along the wall."
Lyons added a second Ravens' score early in the fourth on their own trick play to cut it to 38-14 after a two-point convert.
Mount Doug's Mason Swift recorded a late plunge at the goal line for the Rams, and Ravens QB Trevor Casey connected with Mate McLeod-Genest on a 35-yard TD catch at the final whistle.
The Rams now advance to the provincial semifinals on Friday at UBC.
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