The New Westminster Hyacks chose a tough first-round opponent to tackle.
In fact it was a lack of tackling that was mostly responsible for the Hyacks' 52-20 defeat to the Centennial Centaurs in the opening round of the B.C. high school AAA varsity football playoffs at B.C. Place on Saturday.
Centennial's Justin Buren, one of two star running backs on the Centaur's squad, showed the vulnerability of the Hyack defences, running back the opening kickoff 70 yards for his first of three touchdowns.
Buren's counterpart, Nathan Lund, also scored three times on the ground, including scores of 65 and 66 yards, as the Centaurs rushed for more than 530 yards.
Buren, who ran for 268 individual yards on just 11 carries, all but put the game away in the first half on two separate big-time plays.
The 6-2, 190-pound first-year senior scored back-to-back touchdowns on long runs in the second quarter to put the Coquitlam school up by more than three scores.
The first was on a 29-yard scamper. The second came on a 58-yard ramble on the first play after Tyler Dadey intercepted Hyack quarterback Serafino Gentile close to midfield.
Coquitlam closed the half up 38-14 after a 65-yard gallop up the middle by Lund.
"(Tackling) was an issue for us all year against good teams and good players. We did a poor job in the open field, for sure," said Hyacks head coach Farhan Lalji. "We couldn't match up with them in the open field."
New Westminster coughed up the ball three times in the game, but only one led to a score when Lund scored from 10 yards out after a Hyack fumble in first quarter.
To their credit, the Hyacks struck back with a touchdown of their own after Buren's opening score.
Eric Teng scored from three yards out after Jonathan Lopez put the Hyacks into good field position with a 52-yard kickoff return.
But New West was unable to generate much offence until a poor Centennial punt in the closing minutes of the half gave the Hyacks a shot at goal from the Centaur's 30.
Gentile made good on the opportunity, hitting Jeremy Wilson with a 25-yard touchdown strike with only seconds left on the clock.
But little changed in the second half as Lund romped into the end zone from 66 yards out on the Centaur's third play from scrimmage after New West was forced to punt on its opening possession of the of the half.
"I knew we were hard-pressed to win, but I did think we could be there with them in the fourth quarter. So, I am disappointed with the outcome," Lalji said.
A few bright spots for the Hyacks included sophomore Tristan Sands, who caught three balls for 45 yards and ran for 10 more.
Junior running back Pavan Mrock also rushed for 114 yards and one touchdown, although 42 of those yards came on a single run on the Hyacks' final possession.
"It was very important, a season-ending play," said Mrock of his one-yard TD with no-time left on the clock.
But for Lalji, it was putting a season of injuries to key starters behind him and looking forward to how his returning players will man up next year.
Hopefully we can improve our tackling and be better in that area next year," he said.
Centennial will take on No. 1-ranked St. Thomas More Knights in the quarter-finals at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium.
"It's all about stopping the run," said STM head coach Bernie Kully.
