The South Kam Titans, now the only senior football team in Kamloops, opens its regular season on Friday night at Hillside Stadium (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

South Kam Titans feel Friday’s season-opener against Fulton is a must-win

Oct 2, 2019 | 5:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s only week one, but if you ask the South Kam Titans they are already facing a must-win.

The Titans are treating Friday’s season-opener, at home against Vernon’s Fulton Secondary, as a game they need to have to set themselves up nicely for the playoffs.

“Fulton has finished second [in the Interior Conference] the past three season. They’ve had our number, so this is really a playoff game for us Friday night,” said head coach JP Lancaster. “Fulton’s always been the poorer cousin in Vernon next to Vernon Secondary, but they’re a great football team.”

South Kam has lost its last three meetings with Fulton, including a 14-3 loss last season. The last time they defeated their rivals from Vernon was in 2015, a 23-13 victory.

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“Last year against Fulton we had a really tight game. It came down to one score. Two years before that, they were strong and they thumped us [45-7]. Three years before that, we lost in overtime [31-28],” noted Lancaster. “For the most part, they’re super competitive games. These teams have been playing one another for 30 years now, so there is a rivalry, even though we’re in different cities.”

The game holds so much meaning beyond the rivalry. Vernon Secondary is the class of AA football and comes in as the defending provincial champions.

With Vernon likely to win the Interior conference again, it means South Kam and Fulton will battle it out for a wildcard spot to get into the provincials in November at B.C. Place.

“I think it’s a big game because we don’t like each other at all and we want to make it to provincials,” said running back Mike MacDonald, who lit up the preseason with 313 yards rushing and six touchdowns (four rushing, one receiving, one punt return) in four games “If we don’t win this game, we have to play Vernon [in week two] and that’s going to be an even harder game. So it’s a good game for us to win.”

It’s not often a season-opener holds so much importance. To prepare for the mammoth opener, the Titans treated exhibition more like the regular season, so they would be ready. South Kam went 3-1 with their only loss coming to Robert Bateman last Friday.

“Playing two AAA schools, a strong AA team with Robert Bateman, that was all about getting into situations where we’re having stiff competition, and we were playing those games to win, keeping our starters in for most of the game,” said Lancaster.

Lancaster says Fulton plays a similar style of football as South Kam, making for a potentially great game on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Hillside Stadium.

“We both play a tough, smash-mouth brand of football, so they end up being chippy, physical affairs,” said Lancaster. “But it’s high school football and it’s great.”