Raiders defence shines in key win over Victoria

Michael Rhode, Daily News

When you think of the Vancouver Island Raiders, their high-powered offence and penchant for putting up points on the scoreboard easily come to mind.

Often lost in the shuffle is the Raider defence, a dedicated group, that, in all honestly, hasn't had to be at its very best to secure a victory.

But Saturday, the Raider defenders, and not the offence, played the major role in a grind it out 15-6 win over the Victoria Rebels in B.C. Football Conference play at Caledonia Park.

It was fitting that on the day the team retired former player Jake Cody's No. 97 jersey (he was a defensive lineman), the defence shone through.

The victory was not all that appealing to the eyes. It was full of mistakes -- big, juicy ones --but thanks to solid defensive play all game and a timely fourth-quarter touchdown, the Raiders were able to push their record to 7-0 with a showdown for first place against the South Surrey Rams looming this Saturday.

"Nothing on the offensive side of it was very pretty," said Raiders head coach Matt Blokker, whose team racked up plenty of yardage (421) but was subject to a rash of turnovers, including two inside the Victoria five-yard line. "Defensively, I'm happy to see us play the way we are. We're getting back to form."

The Raiders clung perilously to a 7-6 lead in the fourth quarter when quarterback Jordan Yantz found receiver Matt Sawyer deep in the shadows in the end zone to make it 14-6.

It was Sawyer's second touchdown reception of the game.

He opened the scoring in the first quarter in a 21-yard strike from starting quarterback Marc Migneault.

Coach Doug Hocking's defence took care of things the rest of the way, as they did all game, shutting down Victoria's air attack and keeping wraps on gifted ball carrier Sam Adu.

Victoria's touchdown came off a Migneault interception as Sawyer, struggling to get a hand on a pass near the sidelines, tipped the ball into the air and right into the hands of Rebels defensive back Beau Barthel who raced 40 yards to the end zone.

However, the extra point went wide left so the Raiders maintained the lead.

Hocking was pleased with the defensive effort all the way around.

"I saw a lot of good things out of them. We made our adjustments and we were all on the same page," said Hocking. "We didn't do a lot of confusing things but we did a lot of simple things and did them real well. That's why we were so successful."

It's the second time this season where the Raider defence had to be better than the offence.

Hocking's crew rose to the occasion in a big way in the Raiders 16-11 win over the Okanagan Sun on Sept. 5 after the Raiders trailed 8-3 at halftime.

With a one-point game, Hocking said the defence knew that any mistake could lead to trouble. He said working on similar scenarios in practice helped get his defensive charges ready for the situation.

"I'll tell them, we have a minute and a half left in the game, it's 7-7, how are we going to respond to that?" said Hocking. "That way it's not an unfamiliar thing to them when it actually happens. There was no sense of panic, I could see every time our defence came off the field that we were in control."

Lavar Hayden intercepted a pair of passes for the Raiders while Termaine Apperley picked off one pass.

Middle linebacker Lucas Desmet had a game-high 10 tackles for V.I.

The Raiders had better luck through the air that Victoria on a blustery day.

Migneault and Yantz were 10-for-24 (189 yards) while Victoria was just 9-for-26 (41 yards).

On the ground, Brett Willsie ran for 151 yards to lead the Raiders. Combined, the home team rushed for 234 yards compared to just 60 for the Rebels. Adu had 49 of those yards.

The surprise of the game was a fourth-quarter appearance by running back Andrew Harris, who last hit the field for game action on Aug. 29 in Victoria, where he suffered a knee injury. He touched the ball three times for zero yards.

In the only other BCFC game on the weekend, the Okanagan Sun improved to 5-3 and moved into third place with a 55-10 win over the Kamloops Broncos.

The Raiders host the second-place Rams on Saturday (2 p.m.) at Caledonia Park, their final home game of the regular season.