Image: Supplied by Joanne Hewitt, permission from Ian Parks / G.W. Graham wide receiver Tyson Orregaard hauls in a touchdown catch, one of 9 catches he had on the day, during Saturday's 28-23 loss against Vancouver College in Burnaby.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

G.W. Graham Football

Unbeaten G.W. Graham football team suffers first loss of the year in close battle to Vancouver College

Oct 1, 2022 | 9:02 PM

VANCOUVER — G.W. Graham’s unbeaten streak is over, but the Grizzlies didn’t go down without a valiant fight.

In a battle of the two top-ranked AAA teams in the B.C. rankings, the Grizzlies overcame a 14-6 halftime deficit with second half scores, before the Vancouver College Fighting Irish held on for a 28-23 victory at O’Hagan Field in Vancouver.

G.W. Graham (4-1) came out grinding on defence by holding Vancouver College (4-0) on two consecutive 3-and-out series. G.W. marched down the field early in the second quarter and converted when QB Lucas Feaver (16-of-24, 210 yards, 2 TDs) threw a scoring strike to Tyson Orregaard, who hauled in 9 catches for 148 yards, as the Grizzlies took an early 6-0 lead. The point-after-attempt failed.

The Fighting Irish countered quickly with a 60-yard TD pass, and went up 7-6 after a successful PAT. This set the tone for VC, who started finding gaps in the Grizzlies defence, and they threw a 40-yard score for a TD, to go up 14-6.

The Grizzlies marched back down to the 1-yard line just before half and after several shots and using all other timeouts, the Grizzlies couldn’t punch it in. A holding penalty on the Grizzlies negated a rushing TD by Maleky Colgiu, taking points off the board. The Grizzlies didn’t help themselves with 12 penalties for 115 yards on the day.

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In the second half, there was lots of back and forth action, including a 31 yard Josh Seo field goal, and a Carter Dallas 26-yard TD reception for his only catch of the day. Braeden Macdonald added 5 catches for 60 yards, and Maleky Colgiu had 66 yards on 18 carries for the game.

Image: Supplied by Joanne Hewitt, permission from Ian Parks / Braeden Macdonald catches a pass during Saturday’s matinee showdown against No. 2 ranked Vancouver College.

On special teams, the Grizzlies blocked a VC field goal attempt and ran it back 35 yards to start the next drive. The Grizzlies defence had 2 sacks (Vincent Branauer & Owen Lal), and Christian Beck added an interception and returned it 25 yards. Beck was just one block away from taking it back for six.

“Anytime my defensive backs have to make the majority of the tackles on defence, clearly we aren’t doing enough on the line and at the second level to stop a good run game,” defensive coordinator Ian Parks said.

G.W. Graham coach Luke Acheson said, “The better team won today. We made too many mistakes, took too many penalties, and didn’t execute like we know that we can. We will regroup, watch film, and get on to our next opponent. It’s the beginning of a long season, and we definitely learned some things today that we can take away and make us better.”

The Grizzlies take on the Abbotsford Panthers this Friday, October 7 in Abbotsford. Kickoff is 7 p.m.