The Sardis Falcons ran into two of the better high school football players in the province last week, and suffered their first defeat at the hands of the Earl Marriott Mariners.
Mariner quarterback Byron Ruvalcaba and running back Sam La Roue were a two-man wrecking crew in a 34-20 win in Surrey on Friday.
Ruvalcaba threw two touchdown passes and tormented the Sardis defence, slipping away from pass rush pressure time and time again.
La Roue, Marriott’s star running back, gashed the Falcon D with a combination of speed and power rarely seen at this level.
After blasting Sullivan Heights 42-0 in their first game last week, the Falcons were flying high heading into this one. But one play on their first drive brought them back to Earth in a hurry.
On a fourth and four from midfield, speedy reciever Kurtis Flynn caught a short pass and was quickly brought down by the Marriott D.
He yelled in pain as he hit the ground, clutching the same knee that he’s hurt before. The fear in the moment was that he’d torn a ligament, and all the wind was sucked out of the Sardis sails.
Flynn’s day was done, the Fantastic Four receiving corps was reduced to three and the Falcons never fully recovered.
“I’ve known Kurtis a long time and he’s a good friend of mine, so that was really hard to see,” said Sardis quarterback Josh Janssen. “Kurtis is a big player on offence and defence for us, but we have other players who can get the job done and we’ll have to look for those guys.”
The Mariners opened the scoring on their next drive, with Cole Parker booting a 25 yard field goal.
On the next Marriott drive, the Sardis defence forced a quick three-and-out, but the Falcons return man fumbled the punt and the Mariners kept control of the ball at the Sardis 18 yard line.
Three plays later it was in the endzone on a 17 yard Ruvalcaba to Isaiah Edwards scoring strike.
The Falcons got on the board on their next series, with Janssen finding Nick Butler down the right sideline.
Tightly covered by a Mariner, Butler made the tough grab, shrugged off the defender and raced into the endzone for a 62 yard score.
Sardis trailed 20-7 at the half and head coach Adam Smith talked about his team’s ‘Falcon Tough’ slogan.
“It’s not for when you’re ahead,” he said. “It’s when you’re behind, when you’re facing adversity, that’s when we see whether you’re Falcon Tough.”
His team responded with a better second half.
“They (Marriott) came out strong and we weren’t ready for it, but in the second half we were more prepared and ready to go,” Janssen said. “We showed that toughness as we fought back, and even though a few mistakes put us back down, I think it was still a good game for us.”
A DJ Stephens interception led to a QB sneak TD by Janssen, making the score 20-14.
But the Mariners answered back with a killer drive — a 12 play effort that ended with a major.
On the final play, a fourth-and-four from the 13, Ruvalcaba escaped a near-certain sack in the backfield and took off running. Hit at the two yard line, he coughed up the football.
But La Roue scooped it up and fell into the endzone for a 27-14 Mariner lead.
Down 34-14 in the final minutes, Sardis got one more touchdown on a 15 yard Janssen to Butler strike.
“I still feel good about our performance and I think we did well for a first-year team,” Janssen said. “We learned from our mistakes and I think we’ll come out great next weekend.”
Sardis (1-1) is on the road Friday night for their third game of the AAA season, visiting Victoria’s Spectrum Thunder.
— Sardis got some good news post-game about Flynn.
Medical imaging showed no ligament tears, just a sprain, and the teenager could, optimistically, be back in action in a couple weeks.