SUN NEED ‘CLEANER’ EFFORT VS. RAMS

Even after being flagged with 20 penalties for 180 yards, the Okanagan Sun managed to escape from their B.C. Football Conference opener against Kamloops with two points.

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Don’t expect the same kinds of numbers to wash against the South Surrey Rams in the Sun’s home opener Saturday night at the Apple Bowl.

“No doubt about it, we’ll have to run a much cleaner game against Surrey…they’re always a tough team to play against and you can’t be sloppy,” said Sun head coach Peter McCall. “We had 20 penalties in Kamloops, five of them were personal fouls, and it’s not too often you’re going to get away with that. The guys were lipping off and the officiating crew was maybe setting the tone for the year that they’re going to call it very tight. We have to be more disciplined.”

Despite their propensity for drive-killing infractions—two touchdowns were called back—the Sun emerged from Kamloops Saturday night with a 24-10 win over the Broncos.

Okanagan looked very much like a team trying to work out the early-season bugs, particularly on offense. The Sun also committed five turnovers and yielded five sacks.

Quarterbacks Bobby Davis and Taylor Potkins each played one half of football and each had their moments, but neither stepped forward to seize the starting role.

Davis was 9-for-15 with one touchdown, while Potkins completed 4-of-8 passes and tossed in two majors.

“Inexperience, nerves and having our starting centre injured I think had a little to do with our offense struggling,” said McCall. “Kamloops brought back their whole defense from last year and they brought seven or eight guys on most plays, it created timing problems for us and there was a lot of scrambling around.

“With Bobby (Davis) and Taylor (Potkins) it’s still a stalemate, both guys are capable but neither has stepped up just yet. (Offensive coordinator) Tony Lindsay will have a good look at them this week and we’ll go from there.”

Dan Turek, Tore Tarcon and Daniel Xavier scored the Sun touchdowns Saturday, all on pass receptions.

While the offense spent considerable time on its heels, McCall said the defense performed admirably against the Broncos. The Sun recorded five sacks—two by Steven Doege—and picked off three passes.

With defensive coordinator Jason Casey missing the club’s opener due to other commitments, the Sun defense used a more conservative approach.

“Without Jason we ran more of a vanilla defense, kept things simple and the guys did a pretty good job,” McCall added. “We had penalty trouble and that caused some problems, but Kamloops never drove on us. The guys didn’t bend much at all.”

In the Rams, the Sun will face one of the more athletic teams in the BCFC, led by all-Canadian kick returner Nick Downey.

One notable change will be at quarterback where graduating veteran Cam Clark has moved on to the University of Manitoba.

“They’ll be a little younger and weaker at pivot than we’ve seen, so we’ll be looking to exploit that some,” said McCall. “Jason’s (Casey) type of defense is tenacious and he has all kinds of different looks I’m sure he’ll be showing Surrey. We’ll look at utilizing the personnel we have.”

Kick off Saturday at the Apple Bowl is 7 p.m.

By Warren Henderson – Kelowna Capital News
Published: July 27, 2010 10:00 AM
Updated: July 27, 2010 10:25 AM