The Sardis football Falcons suffered home heartbreak Friday night as a last-play field goal gave the visiting West Vancouver Highlanders a 17-14 win.
In a very entertaining game at Exhibition Stadium, two evenly matched teams went toe-to-toe, and in the end the Falcons could point to missed opportunities as the reason for their defeat.
Three times Sardis drove the ball deep into West Van territory, but they only managed one touchdown. One of those red-zone forays stalled inside the 20 with less than five minutes on the clock, giving the Highlanders enough time to march the ball into position for the winning field goal.
“Only scoring on two of six drives overall hurt us,” Sardis head coach Adam Smith said.
Running back Justin Crooks had one of the Falcon scores, bulling through several would-be tacklers on a 12 yard run.
Nick Butler had the other TD, making a beautiful sideline catch on a perfectly placed pass from QB Josh Janssen.
But caught six passes for 131 yards and has caught a TD toss in six straight games.
He also made seven tackles on defence, but overall it wasn’t a great night on that side of the ball. Smith watched the game film and caught 40 missed tackles.
Having dropped their last two games, the Falcons now hit hte road to finish the regular season.
Sardis is in Abbotsford Friday night (7 p.m.) to take on the WJ Mouat Hawks.
They’re in Vancouver Nov. 3 to face the Eric Hamber Griffins.