Clarke Park – A season of celebration ended on a sour note for the Paul Kane Blues.
The Austin O'Brien Crusaders rained on Paul Kane's parade to the Alberta Bowl with a crushing 32-0 conquest in Saturday's cold and snowy Tier II north final.
"A lot of us are pretty devastated," said a grim-faced Liam Ryan, a two-way lineman, while standing outside a shell-shocked Paul Kane dressing room in his blood-splattered No. 42 jersey. "For us Grade 12s it's pretty heartbreaking because we aspired to be in the provincial final but you know what, making the north final is pretty good too, and in the third year of our program as well."
The first loss of the season gutted the Blues, who were one win away from a historic date with gridiron glory in hopes of becoming the first St. Albert football team to win a provincial championship.
"It's a tough loss obviously. It's unfortunate that we're in this situation," said a discouraged Cory Knott, a Grade 12 quarterback and punter. "You always try not to look ahead but when you see that provincial final so close it hurts."
The Blues, ranked No. 2 going into the provincial playoffs, never got untracked against AOB, the two-time defending Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) gold medallists. The Miles division two champions gave up more points against AOB than against any team this season while averaging an astounding 54.4 points per win and only 13.8 against.
"The preparation we put in for this team was the key to our success, defensively especially. The defensive scheme by Kyle Kirillo, our defensive coordinator, was absolutely outstanding," said a very happy Darcy Ogonoski, head coach of the 5-4 AOB team that missed the Carr division one playoffs on points for and against. "We put in hours and hours and hours of work because we respected the quality of that team to the upmost. They're a great team and we had to prep for it."
AOB, ranked No. 10, did a masterful job of keeping Knott, the Haliburton Trophy winner as the Miles' most valuable player, under wraps.
"We've watched him obviously on film all year and it's the big plays that have killed teams. It's the fast strike and then boom! They will score another fast strike play. We just tried to take that away and keep him from running too. He was the leading rusher in that league (883 yards on 61 carries for 16 touchdowns in Miles) and I don't think he rushed for a first down this game," said Ogonoski of the opportunistic AOB defence that picked off two Paul Kane passes and forced a number of dropped passes with air-tight coverage.
Knott, 17, had almost as many punts as completed passes.
"The conditions were tough and we couldn't get anything quite going our way. A few mistakes here and there and it cost us in the long run," Knott said. "It got frustrating sometimes but you know everyone is trying their hardest so you can't get too frustrated. Everyone out there is putting in their best effort."
The Blues inability to make plays was the team's downfall.
"We had chances in their end and we just couldn't either get the ball there or make the catch. We just couldn't capitalize," said head coach Rob Strecker, shaking his head in dismay inside an empty Paul Kane dressing room. "They did a really good job of keeping Cory inside. They would not let us get to the outside. That took things away from us that we thought we could do."
Weather a factor
The harsh weather also played a major role in the Blues demise.
"We wanted a fast track. AOB did a good job despite the conditions and we just didn't adapt to it," said Strecker, noting the snow-covered Clarke Park turf was a vast improvement to the ice covered cow pasture the Blues played on in Grande Prairie the week before in beating the No. 5-ranked St. Joseph's Celtics 45-28 in the Tier II north semifinal.
Unlike the Blues, AOB was built to play in a snowstorm and it showed while scoring five rushing TDs.
"When the going gets crappy on the field you've got to run straight ahead. That's part of our strength so it helped us," Ogonoski said. "Fortunately we've been in these games in November. The kids learn how to deal with it quite well. The vets pass on their knowledge with regards to prep for the weather. Coaches learn every year with regards how to deal with the weather.
"You can't replace that kind of experience and kids being in that situation. We don't have a ton of Grade 12s on this team (32 players are eligible to return next year) but the ones that we have, have been there twice. They've played since Grade 10 and they're the guys that really stepped up today."
Too much Muamba
Spearheading AOB's unrelenting pound and ground offence was Jonathan Muamba, who was also a tower of power at middle linebacker. The team's Haliburton Trophy nominee as the MVP in the Carr set the tone for victory on AOB's first possession – a five play, 70-yard drive that ended with Muamba's 29-yard outside TD romp on third and three.
"Obviously he is a great physical specimen. When he's focused he's a hard man to bring down," Ogonoski said. "He wasn't going to be denied this year. It's his Grade 12 year and he's really stepping up his leadership down the stretch."
In the second quarter Muamba stepped out of tackle near the line of scrimmage before breaking free for a 54-yard gain. An unnecessary roughing flag against the Blues on the play put AOB at the one for quarterback Ryan Foster to punch in to make it 12-0 with 8:04 left until halftime.
After the kick off the Blues moved the chains from their 35 with a mix of Kieran Porter runs and pass completions by Knott – the big one was 18 yards to Theo Block at the 33. However, on third and three Porter was stopped short of the first down by Muamba at the 24.
On first down Muamba eluded a tackle before gobbling up the yards and was tackled at the Paul Kane 52. AOB kept marching and with 27 seconds remaining until the break, Foster scored from the two and the convert attempt was good to leave the Blues trailing by 19.
After a scoreless third quarter the Blues turned the ball over on downs with 10:43 to play on three incompletes from the AOB 30, including a dropped pass by Shaydon Phillip on first down that had TD written all over it. It was one of several dropped passes by the Blues in the loss.
Back on offence, AOB handed the ball off to Muamba on five consecutive plays for 32 yards. Later on in the series Muamba's 14-yard gain to the Paul Kane eight led to his brother Frederic's TD with 3:33 to play.
Frederic closed out the scoring with a 40-yard TD gallop after the Blues turned the ball over on downs.
The last offensive play of the year for the Blues ended symbolically on third and three at the AOB nine with 21.4 seconds on the clock. Knott's pass down the middle was ferociously batted down by Muamba like a volleyball player spiking the ball for the game-winning point.
"Jonathan Muamba is a great player and a respectable guy. We had him at some points but he is a hell of an athlete," Ryan said of the game's first star.
Despite trailing at halftime for the first time this year, Strecker was still confident the Blues would get the job done.
"We've been down so many times this year (north final was the fourth straight post-season game the Blues started slow) and even in the third quarter I felt that we still could come back and win this football game but we just didn't capitalize," Strecker said. "Defensively we just couldn't stop them and they just chewed the clock up and killed us. Their running game just kept getting first downs and eating up the clock. It forced us to go straight to the air because we had some things that we could do with the running game but the clock was against us."
Bright spots in the loss included multiple receptions by Block, who also picked off a pass deep in Paul Kane territory in the first quarter, and linebacker Greg Fleming was among the top tacklers.
Ryan, 17, stressed the loss didn't reflect what a great team the Blues are.
"This game doesn't define our football team. It doesn't define this year. This year we went 10-1. This is our first loss," he said with a trembling voice. "For us (19) Grade 12s we have to keep our heads up and move on to bigger and better things next year and the Grade 10s and 11s will carry the torch on to next year and I think the Paul Kane senior team will do just as good."
Strecker also searched for positives after one of the best seasons by a St. Albert team ended sooner than expected.
"We had a pretty good year. We won our conference championship and finished 10-1. That's a pretty good year. Obviously you don't want to go out this way. To lay an egg like we did today was sort of disappointing," he said. "When you have a core of guys that have been with you for a few years and then to see them off like this in their last game, that's what makes it sad and difficult knowing that these guys are not going to be returning to the team the following year. You're going to miss them and you wanted it to end a better way and that's disappointing."
