Foote Field – The Paul Kane Blues race to the finish line with a spring in their step as winners of seven in a row in high school football.
Tuesday the Blues challenged the front-running Bev Facey Falcons for the Carr division one championship, followed by their third pressure cooker in nine days when the Tier II (school population 750 to 1,249) provincial north playoffs kick off Saturday in Grande Prairie against the Alberta Bowl champion St. Joseph’s Celtics.
“Everyone’s heads are high but we can’t have a let-down. We need to stay focused in practice,” said Zach Dreger, a two-way Grade 12 lineman, after Friday’s marathon 38-22 playoff tussle against the Harry Ainlay Titans. “It takes a toll three games in nine days but we’ve just got to rest up and get prepared.”
It’s the third consecutive season the Blues and Celtics are dance partners in the north semifinals. Two years ago on a slick field in Grande Prairie the Blues fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and then 21-14 before exploding for 31 unanswered points, including 24 in the second half, to win 45-28. The Celtics haven’t lost a game since.
Last year the Celtics held the upper hand 22-1 on a snowy track at Foote Field.
“We’ve got a big rivalry going. It will be tough going up there but I know we’ve got the team to do it," said head coach Rob Strecker. “If we get all of our bodies back we’ll give them a game.”
The Blues were missing four regulars against Ainlay and had two juniors dressed.
“I told the boys the only way we can do this is if we do it together. We can’t rely on the horses going both ways. We can’t do it. They won’t survive,” Strecker said. “As you saw tonight everyone played and everyone played a big part in this win so we’re going to take the same approach for Tuesday. We have to because we get on the bus Friday and go play St. Joe’s for provincials. We’re going to do this together.”
This year the No. 1-ranked Celtics (13-0) repeated as the Mighty Peace league champions and the No. 2-ranked Blues (8-1) finished behind undefeated Facey in the metro Edmonton league. The result from Tuesday’s final was unavailable at press time.
“It’s exciting. Heck, we’re playing in a championship game that we weren’t supposed to be nowhere near and then Saturday we get another crack at St. Joe’s,” Strecker said.
The third straight metro Edmonton final for the Blues after back-to-back undefeated Miles division two championships was a major milestone in the short but successful five-year history of the Paul Kane football program.
“I’m so proud. Hats off to all the hard work that all my assistants do behind the scenes and the boys believing in what we want to do right. It’s a total buy-in from everyone,” Strecker said.
Dreger, quarterback Brendan Guy, two-way lineman Julian Pawlychka and running back Ty Beck played in their third metro final in three years with the senior Blues, 26-3 over that span prior to the showdown with Facey.
“It’s pretty emotional. Three years in a row we’ve made cities as a team and to make cities in Carr is pretty good,” said Dreger, a physical presence in the trenches. “This year we were supposed to go 1-7 and we were supposed to get thrown around but we’ve proved ourselves when everyone doubted us.”
Facey (9-0), ranked second in Tier I (1,250-plus students) is the only team to beat the Blues this year and Grade 11 star Chubba Hubbard was a one-man scoring machine in the 50-40 thriller Sept. 18 at Johnny Bright Park.
“He finds a hole and he goes. He’s a pretty good athlete and we’ve got to respect that,” Dreger said.
Hubbard rewrote the metro record book with an astonishing 27 touchdowns and 2,243 yards on 112 carries. Against the Blues his pick-six with seconds remaining sealed the deal for the defending Carr champions when Paul Kane was driving the field for points trailing by three.
“We know what Facey is all about and that’s stopping No. 30. We’ll do what we can do,” Strecker said. “The first game our goal was to limit him but the kid is phenomenal. He is the best high school football player I’ve ever seen and I’ve watched a lot of good ones over the years. Speed kills and he has so much of it. They’re a good football team but with that guy it just puts them completely over the top.
“We’re still a little bit banged up. We’re missing some boys out there that we can use but we’re not going to use that as an excuse. We’re going to go with what we have and we’ll do our best to try and give them a game.”
It wasn’t vintage Paul Kane football in Friday’s semifinal but it was still good enough to knock off Ainlay (5-4), ranked sixth in Tier I, in a penalty-filled affair that dragged on forever.
In the first minute of the second quarter, Ainlay tied it at eight with a 77-yard TD punt return and the Blues responded by rolling up 21 unanswered points before the break.
Ainlay closed the gap to 29-22 with TD runs of 35 yards on the second play in the second half and 10 yards with 3:24 left until quarter time.
The Blues pulled away on their first possession of the fourth quarter from their 41 on a drive that saw Ainlay flagged for roughing the passer, pass interference, and objectionable conduct three times, including two by the same player after the whistle. Guy’s second TD of the game, an eight-yard burst, and Rosario Cammarata convert put the Blues up by 14.
With 1:29 to play the Blues were awarded a safety to close out the scoring after they had fumbled the ball away at the Ainlay two a few players earlier.
“We just came together and did what we had to do to win,” said Dreger, 17. “It’s pretty exciting. Everyone is all happy. We weren’t supposed to win this game so it feels pretty good.”
In the first quarter, Guy was picked off at the Ainlay 25 on the team’s first offensive series. He also had a 53-yard TD run called back because of holding on the second-last play of the quarter.
The first of three TDs by Beck was from the one with 2:46 left in the first quarter. It was set up by a sensational leaping catch by Tanner Buchanan while falling backwards in front of the sideline strip at the Ainlay 15. Guy ran in the two-point conversion.
In the second quarter, Beck scored his second TD after Buchanan’s 24-yard catch-and run put the Blues at the two.
After the kick-off, Ainlay went two-and-out and Pawlychka partially blocked the punt. Aiden Block recovered the ball at the Ainlay 54 but the Blues failed to convert a third-and-eight play at the Ainlay 14 instead of attempting a field goal. Pass completions to Aidan Mueller and Mike Webb and runs by Beck for first downs were overshadowed by penalties to the Blues on the drive.
On first down Ainlay fumbled the ball and Isaiah Ansah recovered it at the 26 and the next play the Titans were flagged for pass interference. Guy’s 11-yard TD made it 20-8 with 1:26 remaining in the half.
Ainlay gave up a safety when the Blues tackled the punter in the endzone with 46.4 seconds on the clock. Ainlay was also flagged on the kick-off and the Blues huddled up at Ainlay’s 31. A reception by Mueller was followed by more objectionable conduct flags against Ainlay and from the three Beck scored with 26.6 to go and Cammarata kicked the conversion.
It was 29-14 in the third quarter when Arjun Basahti recovered a fumble at the Paul Kane six.
Ainlay was also successful retrieving three consecutive short kick-offs in the quarter.
With the Blues leading by seven Pawlychka sacked the quarterback to stall an Ainlay drive.
Guy finished 10-for-18 passing for 206 yards and one pick. Six players caught passes, led by Buchanan’s 109 yards on four receptions.
Guy was the top rusher with 84 yards on 11 carries. Beck also gained 70 yards on 12 handoffs as the Blues recorded 180 yards on the ground overall.
“We got really lucky tonight. I don’t know exactly how many penalties we had, it had to be close to 15 or maybe more, so definitely Tuesday and definitely Saturday against St. Joe’s we have to play smarter football or it won’t be a happy ending for us,” Strecker said.
