Okanagan Sun came back from early hole to beat visiting PG Kodiaks

Sloppy Sun remain perfect

The Okanagan Sun record may remain perfect, but their performance Saturday was anything but.

The Sun were sloppy in their execution and the offence sputtered all night long, but they did just enough to beat back the Prince George Kodiaks 35-11 to improve to 3-0.

The Sun all but gift wrapped the only points the team have given up this season.

A botched third and inches on their first possession in which short-yardage quarterback Marcus Christos, out of the shotgun, failed to get back to the line of scrimmage, led to the Kodiaks first score of the game.

Sawyer Thiessen marched the visitors down the field from his 26 before hitting Matthew Sturgess in stride down the left seam for an uncontested 46-yard touchdown.

A single on the ensuing kickoff made it 8-0, then on the next Sun possession, an ill-advised third down fake punt was stuffed, giving the Kodiaks the ball at the Sun 22.

PG was unable to move the ball, settling for a 36 yard Brady Harper field goal to go up 11-0 10 minutes into the game.

“I think it was our execution. Our offence didn’t play well, we had poor play at the quarterback position and ultimately that cost us on the third down early on,” said head coach Travis Miller.

“For us it was a situation where we needed to get a bit of a wake up call, and I think that happened tonight which was great.”

The defence stuffed the Kodiaks the rest of the way, giving the offence and special teams a chance to get back into it.

Following a Liam Attwood field goal early in the second quarter, Glen Kodua brought some life back into the bench and the crowd, finding a hole on the right side of the blocking scheme and returning a punt 64 yards to bring the Sun to within a single point.

A punt single and conceded safety later in the quarter gave the Sun a 13-11 lead at the half.

A Christos touchdown run from the six and an Attwood single on the ensuing kickoff later in the third put the Sun up 10 going into the fourth.

Christos came on for Liam Kroeger in the fourth and engineered touchdown drives of 58 and 80 yards to seal the victory.

He hit Tyler Craver from 27 yards out on the first drive then, riding the reliable legs of Gerren Hardisty, ate up a lot of clock on a 10-play drive, capping it off himself with a one yard plunge, his third touchdown of the game.

Hardisty carried the ball six times on that drive for 36 yards.

In all, he had 207 yards on 28 carries and added another 64 on two receptions, accounting for 271 of the 449 yards of total offence in the game.

“I think our run game is really, really working well. Our O-Line looked really good tonight.

“Hardisty is a really good player, he’s our workhorse. I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Defensively, the Sun locked things down over the final 50 minutes. After giving up 80 yards on the touchdown drive, they allowed just 121 the rest of the say.

They also sacked Thiessen five times in the game.

The Kodiaks actually won the turnover battle, stopping the Sun on third down four times in the game.

The Sun managed just two turnovers, one on downs and an interception on the final play of the game.

The Sun hit the road next weekend for their toughest test of the season, a showdown with the unbeaten Westshore Rebels who have wins over Prince George and the Valley Huskers.

Photo: In Motion Sports Photography

Okanagn Sun improve to 3-0 with 35-11 win over Prince George