By Dan Marshall

Raiders hoping to build on tie with Sun when they visit Westshore

Sep 15, 2017 | 10:57 AM

NANAIMO — Through six games of the BCFC season the VI Raiders defining moment may have been a tie.
 
Sunday’s 31-31 game in Kelowna was a character, come from behind performance that proved that the third place club can compete with the best teams in the league.
 
Coach Doug Hocking hopes the strong effort against the first place Sun will carry over with another tough road game in Westshore on Saturday.
 
“We’ve got to build on our confidence and build on the good things we did and go in there (to Westshore), and establish a run game and still be able to pass the ball and execute the game plan. Defensively they like to run the football and we’ve got to take care of that,” said Hocking. 
 
The game on Saturday will be the second head to head meeting of the season between the Raiders and Rebels, with Westshore taking the Week 2 matchup 27-25.
 
A win by the 3-2-1 Raiders would move VI to a point back of the 5-1 Rebels in the standings and it would be a statement to go into Okanagan and Westshore on back to back weeks and come away with points.
 
Hocking is taking a one game at a time approach, but with the playoffs only a month away a push for a home playoff game has to happen now.
 
“We’ll hopefully get on a roll here and go into the playoffs with a lot of confidence and momentum. First and foremost we need to be healthy, the guys need to take care of their nicks and bruises during the week. There’s a lot of aspects to the second half of the season – one is definitely our health, and the other one is building on our confidence,” said Hocking.
 
Saturday’s game is a 7 p.m. kickoff at Westhill Stadium. The next home action for the Raiders is September 23 against the Valley Huskers.
 
 
dan@nanaimonewsnow.com
 
On twitter: @danmarshall77