VICTORIA – An early 17-point lead proved not enough for the University of Victoria Vikes who dropped a tough 48-34 loss to Burnaby Lake on Mar. 19 at Wallace Field.
 
Third-year Vike Isaac Kaay had a pair of tries and winger Crosby Stewart did well to set up two tries and score one of his own in the loss.
 
"We had a lot of unforced errors and weren't solid enough on defense," said Vikes head coach Doug Tate, whose team returned to 15s action for the first time since winning their fourth-straight University Sevens championship this past weekend. "We gave up too much possession and some easy tries. When you give up 50 points, you can't expect to win very often."
 
First year Gradyn Bowd helped the Vikes find the scoresheet first with a smart 20-yard run down the sideline before offloading to a streaking Stewart. Despite the chasing defender catching up to Stewart, the third year touched the ball down just inside the line to give the Vikes the early 5-0 advantage. Minutes Later, Stewart served as playmaker on a similar play by offloading to Kaay, who ran the ball over the line to put the Vikes ahead 12-0.
 
After second year Morgan Tate made the deficit 17, Burnaby answered back with a quick try and penalty kick to put them on the board down 17-8. After the Vikes went up 22-8 through another Kaay try, Burnaby answered with two major scores before the break. The Vikes lead 22-20 at halftime.
 
After the restart, both teams struggled to find an offensive push before Burnaby had two players sin-binned within minutes of one another. Kapi Vaitaki would score with the man advantage on an overlapping run to put the Vikes up by seven, but Burnaby quickly answered to tie the game 27-27.
 
After leading for the entire game, the Vikes went behind for the first time and had a lot of work to do when Burnaby scored two tries in succession to take the lead 41-27. The Vikes came within one score of the visitors, but a late interception and easy try sealed the victory for Burnaby by a final score of 48-34.
 
The Vikes are back in action on Apr. 2 at 2:45 p.m. against Capilanos back at Wallace Field.
 
GAME SUMMARY:
           1           2            F
UVIC:  22          12          34
BLRC: 20          28          48
 
VIKES SCORING SUMMARY:
I. Kaay (2T), C. Stewart (1T), M. Tate (1T), O. Nott (1T), K. Vaitaki (1T) G. Bowd (2C)