Things didn’t go quite the way the Cowichan Bulldogs hoped on the first weekend of the fall football season.
The midget Bulldogs lost their home opener 24-0 to the Victoria Spartans last Sunday, while the bantam Bulldogs ended up not playing at all.
“Obviously, it wasn’t the result we wanted,” midget head coach Tim Maertz said. “There are a lot of things to work on and get better at. It was a good gauge of what we need to work on.”
The Cowichan defence was led by Nicholas Young, who recorded a sack and three tackles, while Aidan Taylor had an interception and two tackles, and Andrew Beaith had one pick.
The offence was held off the scoreboard, but did make a few trips into the red zone. Running back Dylan Taylor had nine carries and finished with 105 rushing yards, and quarterback Carson Maertz threw for over 100 yards. The receiving core of Paul Romanoff, Dakota Cullum and Kilion VennRyan all had three catches of 30 or more yards apiece.
“We’re excited to keep going,” coach Maertz said. “It was our first game, and we needed to find out where we’re at. We did a lot of good things in this game, and we’ll build on that.”
The bantam Bulldogs were scheduled to host the Westside Warriors from West Vancouver, but the visiting team had to forfeit on short notice.
“It was a real shame because our players are itching to get into a game,” bantam coach PJ Shea said. “We are going into the season feeling confident. We’ve got some new players on the team and they’ve really strengthened the core group that returned from last year.”
All four Bulldogs teams will be in action at home this Sunday, starting with home openers for the peewees at 9 a.m. and junior bantams at 10:30, both against Westshore. The bantams will play host to the Comox Raiders at noon, and the midgets will host Comox at 2 p.m.