SUMMERSIDE – The Summerside Cooke Insurance Varsity Clippers continued their winning ways in the P.E.I. Varsity Tackle Football League on Friday night.
The Clippers posted a 42-0 victory over the Charlottetown Privateers at Eric Johnston Field.
Summerside’s defence once again flexed their muscles by not allowing a touchdown for a third straight game, and gave the offence great field position throughout the game.
Summerside, which is off to a 3-0 (won-lost) start, opened the scoring on a single point on a missed field goal by Caleb Dawson in the first quarter, and then Dawson added a 50-yard touchdown run and a 45-yard score to give the home team a 14-0 lead.
However, the Clippers’ offence stalled on a number of first-half drives as the Privateers’ pass rush pressured Summerside quarterback Nic Gunning into a number of incompletions.
“We wanted to throw the football, and I think we had about 30 passes as we wanted to get that part of our offence going,” said Spartans head coach John Turner. “We struggled for most of the first half with the air attack, but we made some adjustments with our pass protection and then our passing game started clicking.”
Gunning hit wide receiver Ethan Haakman on a 35-yard touchdown pass to end the first half to give the Clippers a 21-0.
Second half
On the first play of the second half, Gunning hit wide receiver Charlie Turner in stride on a long 65-yard touchdown pass, and added a touchdown run of 20 yards to give Summerside a commanding 35-0 lead. The young Privateers struggled to move the ball against the fast Clippers’ defence, and had less than 60 yards in total offence.
In the fourth quarter, Gunning hooked up with Haakman again for a 34-yard touchdown pass, which ended the Summerside scoring for the night.
“Our goal, once again, was let the defence dictate the game,” said Turner, who noted the Clippers’ young offensive line continues to get better.
The Clippers head out on the road for the next two weeks, starting with a game against the Souris Wildcats in Rollo Bay on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Bantam Spartans
The Summerside Waterwise Spartans also improved to 3-0 with a 36-18 home-field victory over the Charlottetown Privateers on Friday evening as well.
Kieran Arsenault scored four touchdowns to lead the Spartans while quarterback Lucas Doucette scored one rushing major.
The Privateers fell to 2-1.
The Spartans’ next game is in Rollo Bay against the Kings County Steelers on Saturday at 1 p.m.
