The Campbell River Eagles Junior Bantam Youth Football team played its home opener against a tough Barsby Dawgs team from Nanaimo this past Sunday. Once again the Junior Bantams were forced to play Ironman football having only 13 players to play 11 man football.
The Dawgs came out strong scoring on their first possession of the game. They missed the extra point try and were up 6-0.
The Eagles looked good on their first offensive possession, with starting Quarterback Casey Klettke ending the drive on a beautiful QB keeper for the TD. They also missed the extra point try to tie the game at 6.
Unfortunately, the Dawgs defence proved to be too much for the Eagles Offence and that was the only score of the day. “We just could not get our blocking schemes down,” said head coach Kevin Meier. “They were able to put pressure into the backfield all day.”
The Dawgs offence also proved unstoppable and the game ended with a final score of 32-6 for the visitors.
“Fortunately this was only an exhibition game and has no bearing on the league standings,” Meier said. “We have a lot to work on over the next couple of weeks (when the Eagles get into their regular season games), but I believe we have the talent to make a very good football team. The bottom line is we need more players to compete with these teams that are fielding 25-30 players.”
The Eagles had outstanding performances by starting Quarterback Casey “Clutch” Klettke, Full Back/Defensive Linemen Tomas “Tank” Foge, Running Back Dylan “Lightning” Lepard, Corner Back Chris “Impact” Rendall, Offensive/Defensive Lineman Brodie “Crush” Comerford and Tight End/Defensive Linebacker Bailey “Blitz” Cook. Cook received the game MVP ball.
The Eagles are still looking for players. Registration can be done on any practice night Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Timberline School Field. Pee Wees are ages 8-11 and Junior Bantams are 12-13.
Next up for the Junior Bantam Eagles is a trip to Cowichan this Sunday to face a new team in the league this year the Cowichan Bulldogs in another exhibition game.