It may not have been pretty, but the Sr. Centennial Centaurs football team walked away with their second win of the season on Saturday night against Mission.
After having three touchdowns called back in the first half because of penalties, a frustrated triple-A Centaurs squad struggled early against their double-A opponents. Mission jumped out to a 15 point lead and Centennial was not able to get any points on the board until after some half-time adjustments were made.
"Our guys started panicking a bit," said head coach Ryk Piche."Everything we did there was a penalty. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot."
But in the second half, the Centaurs hit the reset button.
Running back Nathan Lund rushed for 187 yards on 21 carries and scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to bring his team within one point of Mission.
In the final 45 seconds of the game, Centennial's offense marched down the field, giving Lund the opportunity to score a third receiving touchdown to win the game 22-15.
Piche said the second half heroics showed his team can perform in challenging situations.
"It was a pretty dramatic ending but it showed a lot of adversity," he said. "It was just one of those things where we needed to calm down."
Centaurs quarterback Nick Okamoto had a strong game, completing four of five passes for 62 yards and four carries for another 28 yards.
Running back J.P. Kalambay had 11 carries for 79 yards, while on defense Alex Camilieri had 11 tackles and one sack.
"Mission has quite a good football team," Piche said. "You can see why they are a top echelon team in double A. They just don't quit."
The Centennial Centaurs will go up against Vancouver College on Saturday at Percy Perry Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
RAVENS SOAR
The Terry Fox Ravens notched their first win of the season on the weekend against West Vancouver.
The PoCo squad grabbed the lead with a 13-yard scoring play from quarterback Trevor Casey to Brad Lyons, but the home team answered with two scores of their own. The duo would once again connect later in the game to tie things up with a 20 yard scoring strike.
Ravens receiver Kyle Deugau scored on a six-yard run followed by a 16 yard carry from Casey, helping the club to a 28-20 victory.
"The kids stepped up in the second half to secure the win," said co-coach Martin McDonnell.
