A tough battle.
That’s how Williams Lake Stampeders coach Cody Tent described the team’s seven-to-one loss to the Prince Rupert Rampage Saturday, Nov. 13, at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex.
“We battled against ourselves quite often in this one,” Tent said outside the dressing room after the game. “I know that all the boys inside that room are disappointed in the effort that we couldn’t put 60 minutes together.”
Tent, however, said he had a good feeling the team will be resilient and rebound when they play the Quesnel Kangaroos in Williams Lake on Saturday, Nov. 27.
“We are just going to move on from this one right away, burn the tape, and go onto the next game,” he added.
Rampage coach Roger Atchison said the game went better than he expected, considering the team travelled so far.
“The guys came out and played not that bad,” he said. “We are finally turning into the veterans and it’s a little easier for us sometimes.”
Atchison said like all the other teams in the league, the Rampage have knocked the rust off after the first game.
“We lost to Kitimat our first game and then have been on a bit of a roll.”
In the first period, Lane Wycotte scored the Stampeders’ only goal, assisted by Chad Wilde and Darcy Flaherty. On the Rampage roster, Hunter Johnson scored a hat trick. Two of Johnson’s goals were assisted by Jacob Santurbano and the third by Judd Repole. Kory Movold scored one, assisted by Johnson, Repole scored one unassisted and Cole Morris scored one, assisted by Cole Atchison.
Before the puck dropped, game announcer Dale Taylor asked the crowd to honour the late Richard Martens and John Grant with a moment of silence.
Both men were avid Stampeder fans and attended games regularly.
Ollie Martens, touched by the gesture, said she and her husband, who died on June 28, 2021, attended the games faithfully together for at least a decade.
“I’m still buying two programs,” she said.
She also was the lucky winner of a pizza from Red Tomato Pies Saturday, and said that was the first time she ever won food at a game. Also sitting in the stands were three Stampeders alumni.
Fred Thomas played for the team from 1962 to 1973, Willie Dubray played from 1970 to 1979 and Tom White played from 1958 to 1970. White’s grandson Chad Wilde and Thomas’s grandson Grady Thomas play for the Stampeders today.
The Rampage subsequently lost four to zero when they played the Quesnel Kangaroos on Sunday, Nov. 14.
READ MORE: Quesnel Kangaroos shutout Prince Rupert Rampage 4-0
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