Mike Godwin hopes an up and down 2016 season for his Mt. Boucherie Bears will be trending in the right direction this weekend on the Lower Mainland.
On Friday at Mercer Stadium, the Bears will battle the New Westminster Hyacks in the opening round of the playoffs.
Boucherie (3-4) finished sixth in the Eastern Conference, while the Hyacks went 4-2 to finish third in the Western Conference.
Many of the players on both sides met two seasons ago at the junior varsity level, with the Bears winning by a narrow margin.
In the Hyacks, Godwin expects the Bears will face a well-coached, offensively disciplined team.
鈥淭丑别测 run an offense that always causes fits for defensive 肠辞辞谤诲颈苍补迟辞谤蝉,鈥� said Godwin, Boucherie's head coach. 鈥淧丑测蝉颈肠补濒濒测 I think we match up, but we need to be mentally focused.
鈥淭丑别颈谤 offense just keeps plugging away and even if a defense stops them numerous times, if a mental lapse occurs, they score. They are a very well-coached 迟别补尘.鈥�
The winner will move on to the quarterfinals the weekend of Nov. 18 and 19.
Bears 55 KSS Owls 21
The Bears closed out the regular season with a 55-21 victory Saturday at CNC over the rival KSS Owls.
Taylor Knoll ran for three touchdowns and passed for another, while Steve Johnson and Chris Smith also scored majors as Boucherie made its final tune up for the playoffs.
鈥泪迟 was a good win for 耻蝉,鈥� said coach Mike Godwin. 鈥淜厂厂 has been improving every week and they came out determined to win.
鈥淎迟 the end of the day, both sides were fired 耻辫,鈥� he added. 鈥凌别驳补谤诲濒别蝉蝉 of how the season goes for either team, this is an intense rivalry and our guys played well, especially our offensive and defensive 濒颈苍别蝉.鈥�
Blaise Beauchemin scored a pair of touchdowns for the Owls who finished the season at 0-7. On the upside, KSS coach Chris Cartwright saw his young team make progress with each week, finishing with solid effort.
鈥泪 am so proud of the boys with how we 辫濒补测别诲,鈥� Cartwright said. 鈥泪 feel for our senior players as for some of them this could have been their last football game they ever played. We really wanted to win this one. There were a lot of opportunities where we could have gone the other way.
鈥泪 believe we have solidified our identity as a team that finishes everything we do no matter what. I am really excited to move forward with what we have learned this 测别补谤.鈥�
In junior varsity playoff action this week, the Owls will host Notre Dame on Thursday at the CNC turf.
The Mt. Boucherie Bears JVs will play at St.Thomas More on Thursday.
