The Belmont Bulldogs were relentless yesterday at Bear Mountain Stadium. They chased down Kevin Harrington and practically gang tackled their teacher and coach, before dousing him with a cooler full of icy water.
For the first time in their five-year history, the Bulldogs were celebrating Island supremacy, defeating the Nanaimo District Secondary Islanders 25-0 in the Island Conference Double-A Tier II championship. With the victory, Belmont remained undefeated this season, and earned the right to compete for the Ackles Cup ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ varsity football Tier II title next weekend at UBC, against either Squamish's Howe Sound or Surrey's Frank Hurt.
"It's a good way to go off the Island," said a damp Harrington, expecting this year's success to bring more players into the fold. "We're going to grow this whole program. We're going to be here for a lot of years."
The Belmont defence, which only allowed 46 points through the six-game regular season, was the key. Every time the Islanders came close to scoring range, D-men, such as linemen Ryan Lingstrom and Collin Proskow, applied pressure and came up with sacks, tackles, and turnovers.
"Their defence played lights out," said Nanaimo coach Nate Stevenson. "We had trouble all day long trying to move the football."
In front of a big crowd of enthusiastic, if slightly frozen, student supporters, the Bulldogs took a 6-0 lead in the first quarter, on a 35-yard pass from Joe Barkhouse to running back Keith Williamson. It was the first of three touchdown passes on the afternoon for the Victoria quarterback, thrilled to cap his high school career with trip to the Cup game.
"It means a lot, just to represent my school and the Island."
Barkhouse made his passes count, particularly early on, but the three-year veteran also found room to run for a major, and a 12-0 first-half lead, when his receivers were covered.
After fans were entertained by the Belmont Dance Academy during the break, the Bulldogs went up 18-0 in the third quarter, on an acrobatic goal-line grab by receiver Devon Bell. In the fourth, after Williamson recovered a fumbled punt return deep in Islanders territory, a catch and run by running back Paul Fletcher, and convert by Mike Peverelle finished off the scoring.
