Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, the Cowichan Bantam Bulldogs were thankful for the lessons they’ve learned so far this young football season, including those learned during a defeat at the hands of Nanaimo on Sunday.
“We lost 59-0,” said head coach Opie Williams.
Nanaimo came out strong, catching the bulldogs on their heels, Williams explained. The result was a commanding lead at the half. He said quite simply, his players were having an off day.
“Nanaimo’s running game was strong and we struggled to stop it. Our offence couldn’t get our running game on track,” he said. “Nanaimo, on the other hand, had 307 yards rushing and 58 passing.”
Williams said the group needs to get back to basics and improve the two most important things in football: blocking and tackling.
“I told the boys at half time, they are not better than us, they are just playing better than us.”
While their most recent loss stung, the Bulldogs only have to go back one week to feel the high of a win.
“We had a great game last week, with our first victory of the season,” Williams noted of his team’s 54-26 triumph over the Langley Mustangs. “It was a bit nerve racking for me to totally scrap the current offence and to revamp it. But it turned out to be a positive change.”
Langley scored first but the Bulldogs forged ahead to take a one-point lead. On the ensuing kickoff, the Mustangs fumbled and Asher Parker-Green recovered it. That opened the door for Max Lang to score his second touchdown of the game.
“After that we never looked back,” Williams said.
Lang also returned a punt for a 100 yards for a touchdown, threw to Jaeden Williams for the two point convert and threw another pass to Williams for a 56-yard touchdown as well.
Lang ended the day with a standout performance of 341 yards rushing on 13 carries and six touchdowns.
The defence also played well.
“Peter Elliott had a great game on defence with four tackles and four assists,” coach Williams said. “Lucas Laver wasn’t far behind with three tackles and two assists.”