The VI Raiders and Westshore Rebels head into tonight’s Island derby in the B.C. Football Conference – 7 p.m. on the Nanaimo District Secondary School field — feeling pretty good about themselves despite coming off losses.
The Rebels (5-2) proved they are legitimate contenders by taking the nationally top-ranked Okanagan Sun (7-0) to the limit, leading for much of the game, before the Sun rallied for a 34-31 victory two weeks ago. Westshore had a bye and did not play last week. The Rebels will assure themselves of a home playoff semifinal game with a win today.
“It would obviously be huge to host a playoff game,” said Rebels head coach Shane Beatty.
The Raiders (1-7), meanwhile, will miss the playoffs. But they played well last week against the defending national champion Langley Rams (4-4), coached by former B.C. Lions Grey Cup-winning Cory Philpot, and led at the half, in a 19-14 loss.
The Raiders have managed to regroup to finish the season after off-field adversity — the theft of more than $50,000 of equipment and uniforms when their locker room was broken into last month.
“The Raiders are well-coached and playing well and we can’t take anything for granted,” said Rebels bench-boss Beatty.
“The key is to play our game and limit penalties. When we do that, I don’t think there is a team in the league that can beat us.”
Westshore running-back and Belmont-graduate Gerren Hardisty enters the game third in BCFC rushing with 515 yards while mobile quarterback Ben Chomolok leads the Raiders with a league sixth-leading 287 ground yards. Westshore quarterback Te Jessie, son of former Super Bowl- and Grey Cup-champion running-back Tim Jessie, leads the league in 1,904 passing yards. His favourite Rebels target has been Kiernan Poissant, second in league receiving with 26 catches for 480 yards.
“We have a very athletic group,” said Beatty.
In today’s other games, the Rams visit the Apple Bowl in Kelowna to take on the Sun, who can clinch first place with a victory, and the Kamloops Broncos (3-4) are in Prince George to play the Kodiaks (1-6). The Fraser Valley Huskers (5-3) have the bye week.
Each team plays 10 games in the regular season, which concludes Oct. 8, with the top-four teams advancing to the playoff semifinals Oct. 15. The Cullen Cup BCFC championship game is scheduled for Oct. 22 at the home of the highest-remaining seed. The BCFC champion will play the Ontario Football Conference champion Oct. 29 in the national semifinal with the winner advancing to the Canadian Bowl national championship game to be hosted Nov. 12 by the champion of the Prairie Football Conference.
