Gators improve to 2-1

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Week three of the NSSAF Football League schedule was kind to the expansion Central Kings Gators, but not as much for the other three Valley teams.

Central Kings improved to 2-1 in its inaugural high school football season with a 24-6 win over Avon View Sept. 21 at Acadia. Leading 7-6 at halftime, the Gators scored 17 unanswered points after the intermission to seal the victory.

Jacob Meisner and Jeremy Shepherd each rushed for a touchdown. Brett Hines returned an interception for a touchdown for the second time this season and Tyler Doherty kicked a field goal and was good on all three converts.

“The kids played well and turned in a good effort on both sides of the ball, especially on defense and in the second half,” said Gators’ head coach Jonathan Ingles, who said he was much happier with the second half performance.

“We’re 2-1, which is an excellent start for an expansion team. I’m very excited with the guys and the work they’ve done so far.”

Central Kings won even without number-one quarterback Chris Alguire, who broke his foot in the Gators’ second game against Horton and will be sidelined four to six weeks.

Scott Benjamin, formerly a defensive lineman, stepped in at quarterback and has played well and Doherty has picked up the slack big-time on defense.

Central Kings was scheduled to play at Citadel High this past Friday. Ingles expected a stern test for his team, but added, “the way our defense has been playing, they will hopefully keep us in the game long enough for us to have a chance to be competitive.”

The Gators will host Sackville High, another tough opponent, Oct. 3 in Wolfville then tangle with NKEC Oct. 10, also at Acadia.

Not as fortunate

NKEC and Horton were not as fortunate in their weekend games. NKEC lost 20-14 to Lockview in a back-and-forth struggle Saturday, Sept. 21 in Canning while Horton lost 24-14 to J.L. Ilsley Sunday, also in Canning.

In their game, NKEC and Lockview were tied 6-6 after one quarter. Lockview led 13-6 at halftime, but the Titans came back to lead 14-13 after three quarters.

Lockview capitalized on a NKEC defensive breakdown to score a 65-yard touchdown on a screen pass play in the final minutes to pull out the win.

Titans quarterback Logan VanBlarcom threw for 230 yards and a pair of touchdowns, both to Roland Provencal.

Defensively, Mike Livingston (six solo and six assisted tackles); Isaac Ueffing (six solo, six assisted); and Peter VanOostrum (five solo, one assisted) all had strong games.

The defeat left NKEC with two losses and one tie in their first three games. “The negative is we’ve lost two straight games we could have won, and probably should have won,” said co-head coach Wally Archer. “The positive is we’re working very hard and we’re seeing some good things, especially from our offense.”

Archer said, “we’ve been in all the games we’ve played, we just haven’t been on the right side of the scoreboard. We know we still have some work to do, but we feel we’re starting to see some results.”

NKEC was scheduled to play J.L. Ilsley this past weekend in Halifax, the first of three straight road games for the Titans (though one of them is against Central Kings at Acadia). The Titans are next at home Oct. 19 against Sir John A. Macdonald Flames.

Horton, on the other hand, took a step backward in their game against J.L. Ilsley Sunday in Canning, at least according to their head coach Alec Hyndman.

“We didn’t play very well,” Hyndman said. Horton’s record dropped to 1-2 with their 24-14 loss. “I’m disappointed,” he said. “We’re better than that.”

Lee Spence scored the only touchdown for the Griffins, who also added a two-point conversion. Dougie Gee kicked a pair of field goals to round out the Horton scoring.

The Griffins were scheduled to play at Sir John A. Macdonald this past Sunday then play Oct. 5 at Halifax West and Oct. 10 at Cole Harbour before returning home to face C.P. Allen Oct. 17 in Wolfville.