For some Howe Sound Sounders on Saturday, it meant the last chance to lace up and take to the football field at Howe Sound Secondary.
Safe to say they played the last home game of the regular season with some extra passion and swagger, beating the visiting Spectrum Thunder, 52-8.
Running back-linebacker Scott Messier, in his fourth and final year, had a big game for the team and said there was a little more pressure, knowing it was the last time he would play at home.
鈥淵ou do get knots in the stomach. You know you鈥檝e got to perform,鈥� he said after the game.
Quarterback-linebacker Connor Dawson, who has played three years with the Sounders, agreed that knowing it was the final game at home provided some extra motivation for the players leaving.
鈥淚t was kind of emotional,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good way to go out鈥� with a win.鈥�
The rainy weather suited the Sounders, which relied on a running game, though the defence and special teams also came up strong against the Thunder. Right from the kick-off, the Sounders went on the attack and forced a fumble, which they recovered. Messier ran the ball in for a touchdown on their opening drive. Michael Lane, who was handling much of quarterbacking on the day, then converted the two-pointer with a pass outside to Nic Garcia-Huidobro.
When Spectrum got the ball back, they lost major yards due to a high snap and ended up having to punt. In no time, Howe Sound was back up by another touchdown, courtesy of Lukas Nering, who, like Messier, had a huge day out of the backfield. Lane then ran in the two-point convert.
After their third touchdown, Howe Sound set up to kick the single-point conversion, but when the set was bobbled they were able to run it in for two points.
It was just that kind of afternoon, as the Sounders kept running the ball and by the second quarter ran up the lead to 32-0. The only glitch came late in the quarter when the visitors finally got on the scoreboard with a touchdown and two-point conversion.
Before Spectrum could catch their breath, Garcia-Huidobro took the kickoff and put the old shake-and-bake on his defender, then sprinted down for another Sounder major.
In the third quarter, the home side lost their edge for a stretch, as they nullified some large rushing gains with penalties.
Howe Sound recovered though and added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, courtesy of Messier and Dawson, to finish the game on a high note.
On Nov. 14, the Sounders will go on the road to face Eric Hamber to close out the regular season.
鈥淚 just hope we bring the same energy that we had,鈥� Messier said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to be a tough team.鈥�
His teammate Dawson agrees: 聽鈥淲e built up some momentum. I think it鈥檒l be a good game.鈥�
