Our boys arrived in Tsawwassen this morning on their way to Burnaby only to find that there was no bus awaiting. Manager Mike de Goede reacted well under pressure and quickly ordered 10 taxis to get the team to Burnaby Lake.
Once there, the Reserves took the field and appeared ill-prepared to get stuck in and before they knew what was happening they were down 31-0 at the half. The second half was a complete turn-around, perhaps because Nathan ‘Cheese' Waldmann was now in the game. After a big run by Big Ben Stocell allowed Dakota La Chance to notch the visitors’ first tally, Otto converts to go up to make it 31-7. With Peter Masimo making multiple forays into enemy territory, the Bays seemed to be taking it to the home team. However, a soft try after a Burnaby winger outflanked the defence widened the score to 38-7. But at 20 minutes the indefatigable Masimo bowled over several surprised defenders to score James Bay’s second try…38-12. Missed tackles allowed BLRC to score their final try and go up 45-12. After a red card to a dirty birdie on Burnaby for a vicious foul play and a yellow card to Peter the Yankee for a retaliatory punch to the dirty birdie, Big Ben barges over for the final score of the game.
Although the Navy Blue lost 45-19, they did win the second half..🙂
The Prems game was an exciting match from start to finish. Thomas Burton put the Bays in the lead after 5 minutes with a well-struck penalty from 35 metres out. Burnaby punched back with a well-executed back movement to go ahead 5-3. A penalty and subsequent rolling maul allows JBAA to go up 10-5, but a Burnaby winger responds to make it a 12-10 lead for the Lakers. A try at the half by Burnaby makes it 17-8 at the half-time whistle.
Six minutes into the second half after a penalty and a rolling maul, a 9-to-12 pass sees Burton dive over the line between the posts. His convert makes it 17-15 Lakers. With Burnaby clinging desperately to the lead, Burton upsets their apple cart by notching again at the 27 minute mark to complete the scoring for the day at 22-7 for the Bears.
The match was a nail biter throughout; Burnaby miss-handled too many times to deserve the win, while JBAA never gave up and were value for their second win of the premiere season.