A sweet repeat is only two wins away for the Paul Kane Blues.
The defending Miles division two champions are poised to run the table for the second straight year in metro Edmonton high school football when the semifinals kick off Friday.
The Blues are undefeated in six games after going 9-0 last year while winning the first senior team’s championship in the four-year history of the Paul Kane program.
“We had a really good core group of us come back from last year and that really helped push us to where we are right now in the season,” said Ryley Melnyk, one of 12 returnees from the 2013 Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) north finalists.
The winner of Tuesday’s opening playoff round between the St. Albert High Skyhawks (3-3) and Ardrossan Bisons (2-4) will line up against the Blues on Friday. Tuesday’s score was unavailable at press time.
The semifinal starts at 5 p.m. at Foote Field and admission is $5. The Miles final is Nov. 1.
“We’re all pretty excited about the playoffs,” said Aidan Mueller, a Grade 11 two-way threat at slotback and SAM linebacker. “Everyone will have played a game before they play us (on Friday) so we get that little extra bit of time to prepare.”
In league play the Blues hammered the Skyhawks 56-0 in the season opener and thumped the Bisons 35-7.
A straw poll at Monday’s practice showed a strong preference for the first playoff Battle of St. Albert between the Blues and Skyhawks, the only Tier III (450 to 749 students) team in the Miles.
“It would be SACHS again,” Mueller said. “I know they want revenge against us but I like playing against friends and I have lots of friends on their team.”
Melnyk was also rooting for the Skyhawks to beat the Bisons.
“Personally and as a team perspective we would like to play St. Albert High because it’s that whole St. Albert rivalry thing,” said the Grade 12 linebacker and right guard.
Paul Kane was a feeder school for the Skyhawks for 13 years before forming its only football program in 2011. Last year’s 78-14 destruction of the Skyhawks set the tone for greatness as the Blues finished 10-1 overall.
This year the Blues averaged 49 points per win and only 6.5 against en route to the division pennant, compared to last year’s average of 60 PF and 11 PA.
“From a defensive standpoint we’ve played even better than we did last year. We’ve had three shutouts this year (compared to two in 2013),” Melnyk said. “We’ve really got it together recently on offence too. We were able to put 73 points up last week (against the W.P. Wagner Warriors) so it’s starting to look a lot more like last year offensively.”
The Blues, ranked second in Tier II, also picked off an incredible seven passes in the 73-8 blowout of Wagner (1-5).
Mueller’s pick-six was his third of the season and team-leading fourth interception. He basically ran the length of the field to score early in the game as the Blues rolled up an insurmountable 42-8 halftime lead.
Mueller also caught one pass for 30 yards for his fourth TD reception of the season but he prefers taking quarterbacks to the cleaners with a pick-six.
“It gives you a momentum boost when you really need to get back into the game when you’re down and it’s also less likely and less frequent as a touchdown pass,” said the second-leading receiver in the Miles with 303 yards on 24 catches.
Brendan Guy lit up Wagner for six TD passes while going 13-for-23 for 256 yards and one interception. Ty Beck also threw one pass, a 55-yard scoring strike to Tanner Buchannan, one of his four TD receptions while amassing 146 yards on five catches.
Guy is the top passer in the Miles with 1,228 yards while completing 92 out of 158 attempts for 13 TDs and two interceptions.
“We rely on our O-line to score. We couldn’t do anything without them,” said Mueller, 17. “Our quarterback also puts his time into practice and our whole team tries hard in practice as well. We all work together as one.”
Melnyk, 17, credits the defence for allowing the offence to work its magic.
“We’re giving our offence opportunities to show what they can do,” he said.
THIRD DOWN: The junior Blues lost Monday’s metro division one junior playoff opener 12-7 to the Bev Facey Falcons at Clarke Park.
The Blues opened the scoring in the second quarter with a five-yard TD run by fullback Jamison Enger.
At the end of the first half Keaton Zaychkowsky returned a punt 55 yards to pay dirt but the TD was called back on an illegal block.
A rash of injuries to the Blues in the third quarter allowed Facey to score a TD, safety and field goal.
Late in the game a 46-yard pass and run from quarterback Anthony Beaulieau to Shonenn Pomerleau-Piquette put the Blues at the 20 but two TD passes were dropped in the endzone, followed by an interception to seal the deal for Facey.
The Blues finished 3-3 and their average margin of loss in those three games was 5.3 points.
Facey is 4-2 entering next Wednesday’s semifinal against the 5-0 Bellerose Bulldogs, the two-time defending champions.
