Sun backup takes charge

Photo: Wayne Moore

Tyson Mastrodimos stretches for the end zone. Unfortunately, the touchdown was called back because of a penalty.

A quarterback controversy? Probably not.

But, with starter Keith Zyla on the bench with a lower body injury, backup Nick Wenman made the most of his first start in junior football.

Unofficially, the Cold Lake, AB product threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Sun to a 36-0 pasting of the visiting Kamloops Broncos Saturday night.

"Honestly, I thought I would be, but I really didn't have many nerves," he said.

"I just woke up ready to go. It was kind of weird."

Wenman got the Sun on the board early, moving the team 69 yards on three plays on the team's second possession of the night. The drive was capped off by a pretty 36 yard strike to Kyler Mosley.

Wenman pump-faked, then hit Mosley, who was wide open down the right sideline, in stride.

He credited his offensive line with giving him the time and Mosley for getting as open as he was on the play.

The Sun led just 10-0 at the half despite dominating the Broncos on both sides of the ball. Penalties at the wrong time took 21 points off the board in the second quarter alone.

Touchdown passes to Tyson Mastrodimos (holding) and Liam Crane (illegal block), and a pick-six by defensive back Ty Kitzman (illegal block), were all called back.

Frustrating?

"A little bit, but it's just mental errors we're got to eliminate," said Wenman."

"But, it is what it is. We're going to move on to next week."

Head coach Ben Macauley was a little less forgiving.

"It's something we can blame the refs for, but a lot of the cases we were just being lazy. It's not so much a discipline thing, it's more of an effort thing," said Macauley.

"If you get away with things in practice, you get away with things in games. It shows we didn't crack down hard enough this week on that, so we expect that to change big time, especially on special teams."

Wenman connected with Liam Crane on a 20 yard strike on second-and-20 to put the Sun up 17-0 in the third.

In the fourth, Mosley found the end one a second time, this on a two yard run, before Wenman hit Nathanael Anderson with a 52 yard bomb for his third touchdown pass of the night.

Isaac Wegner converted three of those touchdowns and also hit on three of four field goal attempts.

The Sun defence was again stellar, allowing now just one point over six quarters and 14 minutes.

The defence held Colby Henkle to just 126 yards through the air. That included two completions of 79 yards, including a spectacular one-handed grab by Thijs Duineveld. Take those away, he was 9 of 25 for 47 yards.

The Broncos managed just 32 yards on the ground.

So, is there a quarterback controversy?

Not according to the head coach, who says it's not really fair to compare the performance of each quarterback over the first two games.

"We were playing against a different team. Nick did some things really well, he did what we asked. Keith could have done the same thing if he was in there.

"We have two guys that are really working well. The first guy to congratulate Nick coming off the field is Keith. It's a huge bonus to us to have a guy who can come in there and, depending how long Keith is out, we don't take a step back."

Macauley says Zyla will be back under centre when he's ready to go.

But, Saturday's performance should give them the luxury of not having to rush their number one back before he's ready.

The Sun travel to Langley to face the 1-1 Rams next weekend.

Their next home game is Saturday, Aug. 19, when they host the Valley Huskers.