You can run, but you can’t hide.

Nowhere did that old aphorism ring truer than on the big bog behind Ballenas Secondary School Saturday, as the powerhouse Mt. Doug Rams steamrolled over the hometown Whalers 35-8 and put an end to the locals’ football playoff aspirations.

“They’re big, they’re talented, and they have an answer for everything,” Whaler co-head coach Jeremy Conn surmised Sunday, pointing out the Rams came into the game as the top seeded AA team in the province and the odds-on-favorite to win the championship. “They’re smart and well-coached. They wait for things to be exposed that they can take advantage of.”

Keeping in mind the Rams dispatched the Barsby Bulldogs 34-6, the Whalers would have had to play perfect game for any chance at pulling off the upset in their final home game of the year.

“It’s a game of inches and it didn’t go our way Saturday,” said Conn, pointing out, “you have to play a perfect game to beat Goliath, and we didn’t do that.”

“Holy crap they’re big,” one of the local volunteers surmised from the sidelines.

Big is right. Big across the board, the Rams pencil in six players at 6-foot-three inches, and another at 6’5”, 220 pounds.

As for the conditions, it wasn’t raining, but it was windy and the field was muddy down the middle and slick all over. Footing was a problem for the blue and white. The visitors, though, because of their sheer size, didn’t have as much trouble with the slick pitch.

“In all my years of officiating I’ve never seen anything like it,” one silver-haired linesman said of the field conditions.

“I think we need to do a better job preparing it for the season,” said Conn.

Field conditions aside though, there’s a reason the Rams, who dropped down from AAA this year and are committed to going back up in 2010, came to town undefeated in the Coastal Conference.

The Whalers looked good early, as they forced the visitors to punt on their opening drive and played small ball to chew up the clock. Ballenas limited the visitors to one touchdown with under two minutes left in the opening quarter, and had made a huge goal line stand and later forced them to kick a field goal. Trailing 10-0 with time winding down in the first half, the Whalers drove the ball deep into Rams’ territory, only to turn it over on a fumble.

The Rams made the Whalers pay and went on to take a 20-lead into the half.

Highlights on the day for the blue and white included the effort of Cayce Pummell who had his best game ever as a Whaler, pulling in five catches for a season-high 65 yards and the Whalers lone TD (a 30 yard strike from BJ Bouchard in the third) on offense, and leading the D with six tackles, five assists and a knockdown.

“He had an amazing game, a great game,” team mum and statistician Shawna Wall said after.

“Cayce’s a kid that does whatever you ask him to do,” coach Conn said of the 5’6”, 160 pound senior, pointing out, “he’s a small kid with a huge heart  ... he’s played like eight different positions for us this year.”

Jordan Hunt was also a force for the blue and white with 10 tackles — three of those in the backfield for a loss — and two assists. Joseph Brewster got in for a sack and Mark Childs also had a good game at corner and wide receiver where he came up with a diving catch in the 4th quarter.

The big Rams (now 6-0) kept Whalers’ skatback Graeme ‘Lion’ King in check, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. King pulled in the pass for the two point convert on the TD.

“Our scheme was playing disciplined, playing hard as a team, unfortunately we just had a few breakdowns, some blown assignments, but the kids played hard. Some people felt that was one of our better games of the year,” said Conn.

The loss drops the Whalers to 2-4 for sixth in the eight-team Coastal Conference and officially out of the playoff picture. Ballenas closes out the 2009 campaign across the pond in North Shore Friday afternoon looking to play spoiler against the No.3 seeded 4-2 Windsor Dukes, who need a win to host a playoff game.

“It’s always easy to get up for Windsor — they’re tough to play and they’re fun to beat,” said Conn, adding, “It all goes back to our team motto — we finish strong, we finish together. We just want to finish off the season on a positive.”