The midget Cowichan Bulldogs put together a solid game against the Victoria Spartans at McAdam Park on Sunday afternoon, but it wasn’t enough as the Spartans capitalized on the Bulldogs’ few errors to come out on top 14-0.
“I think we played a better game than the score dictates,” Cowichan head coach Mike Williams said.
The Bulldogs’ physical, aggressive defence created a lot of negative-yardage plays for Victoria, but missed tackles and missed assignments on one play led to a 45-yard touchdown by the Spartans in the first quarter.
There was no more scoring until late in the fourth, when the Cowichan offence gave up back-to-back negative-yardage plays, the last one a fumble that was recovered by the Spartans for a touchdown.
The Cowichan defence was led by Nicholas Young, who had three sacks and three tackles for losses, Kilion VennRyan, who had two interceptions and broke up three passes, and Brooks Branchi, who started at middle linebacker for the second game in a row and impressed Williams with his physical performance. Branchi took several years off of football before returning this fall, but hasn’t looked out of place.
“He hadn’t played in about five years and came back as an 18-year-old,” Williams said.
The Cowichan offence didn’t manage to score any points against Victoria, but Williams still liked much of what he saw when his team had the ball.
“Offensively we did good things and moved the ball well at times,” he said. “I liked our running game, despite the fact that we don’t have our No. 1 running back [Damian McCuaig-Jones] healthy.”
The Bulldogs did get a couple of injured starters back in linebacker Alex van Ryk and fullback Daniel de Vries, who was effective both moving the ball and blocking. Two linemen, Matt Pretula and Dylan Taylor, played nearly the entire game on both offence and defence.
At no point in the loss did the Cowichan players lose focus, which pleased the coach.
“As much as we couldn’t get anything going and didn’t put points on the board, I was impressed with how the team came together as a team and they didn’t blame anyone else for not having success,” he said. “Victoria didn’t do anything we couldn’t handle; there were just a few errors at the wrong times.”
The Bulldogs will head to the Mainland on Monday for a Thanksgiving date with North Delta.
“I know they don’t have a lot of numbers,” Williams said. “I expect a good week of practice, and I expect us to have a good game on Monday. Hopefully we’ll get some positive things going and have an enjoyable ferry ride back on Monday afternoon.”