The beat goes on for the Paul Kane Blues.
The winners of six in a row march into Friday’s semifinal as the second-place Carr division one team in metro Edmonton football.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. against the Harry Ainlay Titans at Foote Field and admission is $5.
“It’s pretty surreal right now,” said Isaiah Ansah, a Grade 11 linebacker/running back with the 7-1 Blues. “We’re playing well and executing to the best of our abilities. It’s good times for sure.”
The Miles division two champions the last two years have left a lasting impressive in their first Carr campaign since 2012, which was the last season before the merger of the metro and Edmonton public leagues.
“Everyone wasn’t expecting very much of us. They were expecting middle of the pack,” Ansah said. “We’ve had a good record but we can’t get too cocky. It’s the playoffs now so we want to execute as well as possible. We’re doing all the studying we need to do and just focusing on our game.”
Everybody is on the same playing field in the playoffs regardless of their record.
“It’s always different in playoffs. Everyone is amped up and plays with way more intensity. It’s a whole different ball game,” Ansah said.
The 26-14 win over Ainlay (5-3) was one of the closer games the Blues have played in this year. The second-highest scoring offence in the Carr put up 481 total yards – 303 passing and 178 rushing – and three touchdowns against the fifth-best defence.
“We’ll be facing a very powerful team. They run a lot. Their quarterback is a really good athlete and he’s got a good arm as well,” Ansah said of Cody Olson, 56-for-118 passing for 724 yards, eight TDs and five picks, plus 639 rushing yards (second-highest in the Carr) on 87 runs for nine TDs. “We’re going to be working on all facets of our defensive game. We’re hoping for a good shutdown game.”
Head coach Rob Strecker described Ainlay, ranked sixth in Tier I (school population 1,250-plus), as a dangerous foe.
“They’re very much like us. They’re very athletic so they match up well against us,” he said. “They’re very fast. They have a quick defence. They have a quarterback that can run and he showed in that last game he can throw the football too. They completed a few passes on us. We’ll have our hands full.”
If the Blues win, they will line up against Chubba Hubbard and the No. 2-ranked Tier I Bev Facey Falcons (8-0), the only team to beat the Blues this year in a wild 50-40 affair Sept. 18, or the No. 7-ranked Tier I Bellerose Bulldogs (5-3) in Tuesday’s final.
The Blues are also the No. 2-ranked Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) team in Alberta and they will huddle up Nov. 14 against the defending Alberta Bowl champion St. Joseph’s Celtics (12-0) in Grande Prairie in the north semifinals. Last year the Celtics beat the Blues 22-1 in the semifinals as the Blues finished 8-1 overall after going 10-1 in 2013. The Austin O’Brien Crusaders were the team that knocked the Blues off that year in the north final and last week it was payback time as Paul Kane humbled the unranked Tier II Crusaders 49-8 at Clarke Park. It was 34-8 at halftime.
The loss dropped the Crusaders (2-6) into next week’s Tier II qualifying game against the McNally Tigers (7-0), ranked ninth as the top Miles division two team, to see who will be the second metro rep in the Tier II provincial playoffs.
The Blues pumped the Crusaders for 611 total yards and seven TDs while defensive end Julian Pawlychka recorded 14 tackles and a quarterback sack.
Brendan Guy completed nine-of-21 passes for 320 yards and four TDs. The best of the bunch was a wicked 105-yard catch-and-run by Tanner Buchanan, the Carr’s leading receiver (787 yards on 34 catches for seven TDs), in the second quarter.
Aidan Mueller scored twice on TD receptions of 19 and 73 yards and Keaton Zaychkowsky was also on the receiving end of a 43-yard TD pass.
Guy, the No. 1 quarterback in the Carr (101-for-191 passing for 1,686 yards, 12 TDs and four picks) also gained 112 yards on five runs, highlighted by an 81-yard scoring romp. His season totals are 490 yards on 54 carries and four TDs.
Zaychkowsky also rushed for 84 yards on three carries and busted loose for a 68-yard major and Ty Beck added an eight-yard TD score.
Zaychkowsky (team-high 13 TDs and 596 yards on 48 carries) and Buchanan left the game with undisclosed injuries and their status for Friday was unclear at press time.
“They’re a real physical team. I know their guys. They’re competitive and cocky but so is everyone in football. It’s not a strike against them. They’re a very good team and a bunch of good guys. They have a lot of really good athletes,” said Ansah, 16, ranked second on the Blues in tackles with 36, 12 less than Pawlychka’s totals.
To say the Blues are peaking at the right time is an understatement.
“We’ve won our last six and yes we have played better and better every game, which is what you want at the end of the year come playoff time. I’m very happy with the way our boys are playing and hopefully we can keep this going,” Strecker said.
