The Bantam Cowichan Bulldogs arrived ready to roll over the weekend, dominating Comox to a 43-6 final score — all but one of their points coming in an action-packed first half.
On the team’s second offensive play Max Lang got the scoring started with a 60-yard touchdown run. Peter Elliott made the extra point and all the extra points on the day.
It was the first of six touchdowns for Lang.
Cowichan’s defence was on the ball from the start. On Comox’s second offensive play, an incomplete backwards pass, Lucas Laver made a heads-up play and ran down and jumped on the ball while everyone was walking back to the huddle. Lang had a shuffle pass to Jaeden Williams who ran it down to the five yard line. Lang then ran it in for his second score.
Special teams came up big and forced the Comox punter to scramble on a bad snap and Josh Thomson made a key tackle on the Comox 12 yard line. Asher Parker-Green ran the ball down to the one yard line. Lang ran it in for the Bulldogs’ third touchdown.
Late in the first quarter, Patrick Charlie made his first of three interceptions of the day. Not long thereafter, Lang took it 55 yards for the team’s fourth major score on the day.
At the start of the second quarter, Charlie had his second interception. Lincoln Ryder had a great catch and took it to the 55 yard line. Lang broke free on a QB sneak and ran it into the end zone for his fifth TD.
Lang caught his sixth TD for a 42-0 lead before the end of the first half. Comox got a touchdown on a great misdirection play that faked out the entire defence. Thomson was so frustrated with his error on the TD that he made a great hustle on their two point covert attempt.
The team went into halftime with a 42-6 lead.
“We cooled our jets, rotating players to get much needed reps,” said head coach Opie Williams.
With Comox pressing in the fourth quarter, Charlie had his third interception in the end zone, taking the ball out of the red zone.
“I decided to make every lineman’s dream and had Kolten Crook in at the tight end position and released him on a pass,” Williams said.
“He did juggle the ball, but did catch it and ran it down to the 18. We moved the ball down to their 10 yard line and decided to kick a field goal. We missed wide right but got the rouge.”
Cowichan hosts Comox in a rematch Saturday at 12 p.m. at McAdam Park.