It was a great day to be a Comox Valley PeeWee Raider football player on Sept. 25, with a narrow victory against the Nanaimo Blue Bombers.
The first half saw a hard-fought battle with David Chincoya-Martinez making a beautiful run up the sidelines for the Raiders first score of the game, but Nanaimo’s defence was able to thwart the convert making the score 6-0 in the first half.
The second half saw an incredible effort by the Raiders defence, with Gage Hennicke-Nasadyk, Rhys Binney, Riley Colomby and Alex Hall, containing the outside run of the Blue Bombers despite some tricky, powerful running by the Nanaimo running backs, and making some crushing tackles in the back field.
The second half also saw a great scamper by Fynn Baekkelund off a dive play to make the score 12-0; again the convert was shut down by the Nanaimo defence.
The Raiders defence held Nanaimo off again, allowing the Raiders offence to widen their lead with a Morgan Crisp touchdown off a broken play up the middle. Yet again the convert attempt was stuffed by the Bombers defence.
Late in the fourth quarter the Bombers turned up the heat, scoring two touchdowns and making good on both two-point convert attempts, making the score 18-16, and with the final buzzer going the score would remain 18-16 with the Raiders squeaking out a narrow victory.
Again this game would see much of the team playing Ironman ball (offence and defence), and yet again the players showed amazing heart and tenacity.
The PeeWee Raiders are home this Saturday, Oct. 1, to play the Victoria Renegades in an 11 a.m. start at Bill Moore Memorial Park.