Ellerslie Rugby Park – The Bellerose Bulldogs played their best rugby of the season when it mattered the most.
After going winless in league play, the Bulldogs roared to victory in the playoffs to capture their seventh metro Edmonton high school banner in school history and the first city conference championship since 2010.
“It's all about pride,” declared Jack Hanna, a burly Grade 11 loosehead prop, after the 24-17 decision against the O’Leary Spartans. “We didn't do so good for the first part of the year but we came into cities and showed what Bulldog rugby is all about.”
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In the condensed league fixtures the Bulldogs finished 0-3 in north pool play and were relegated into the city playoff bracket.
The Bulldogs scored more points in the 63-0 semifinal blowout of the Bev Facey Falcons (0-4) than in their three losses combined before polishing off O’Leary.
“Our league games didn't go that well. We played against the two best teams in the league probably so I guess we deserve this,” said Grade 12 captain Luc Saulnier of the losses of 40-17 to St. Francis Xavier Rams and 33-13 to the Sturgeon Spirits, who lost to the Rams in Thursday’s premier conference final.
After a scoreless first quarter the Bulldogs ended the first half with a 7-5 advantage. Evan Grohn converted an errant O’Leary pass in front of its try line for the opening score and Saulnier kicked the conversion. O’Leary closed out the half with a run through weak tackling.
“It took us a while to get going,” said Saulnier, who was unsuccessful kicking penalties from outside the 22-metre line in the first quarter and a long-range attempt leading up to Grohn’s try. “I missed a couple of kicks so it was a little discouraging leaving the points out there.”
The Bulldogs never relinquished the lead in the second half while cranking out three tries and a conversion. It was 12-10 after three quarters.
“We really started to gain ground in the second half,” Hanna said.
“We were motivated,” added Saulnier. “The coaches gave us a nice speech at halftime and we stuck to the game plan of kicking the ball down in their end and put the pressure on them.”
In the third quarter a pulverizing run by Hanna off a ruck from outside the five-metre line left the Spartans trailing by a converted try. Saulnier’s conversion attempt hit the post.
Penalties set up O’Leary’s second try of the match on a play that took the referee several steamboats to make the call after the Spartans crossed the try line.
Five minutes into the fourth quarter, Saulnier finished off a determined drive by the Bulldogs. His conversion made it 19-10.
“That was really good work by our forwards,” Hanna said.
O’Leary replied with a converted try despite a strong goal-line stand by the Bulldogs for several minutes before the Spartans snuck the ball in.
With the Bulldogs up by two and time winding down, Hanna’s run into contact on a penalty play inside O’Leary territory led to a great individual effort by Saulnier. While chasing a bouncing ball down the wing he looked like a soccer player kicking it forward a couple of times past defenders before tracking it down in the try area.
“That was a really good job by Luc. It was a big play,” Hanna said.
A total team effort contributed to the victory as a number of Bulldogs took turns coming up with big plays. Damien Pon and Andre Sarafinchan were especially strong sticking their tackles.
“It was a hard game but we just kept going. We had a couple of good goal-line stands that really helped us out,” said Saulnier, 17, who played fullback in the first half before switching to standoff.
O’Leary wasn’t a pushover at 1-3 going into the final.
“I don't think we did a lot of stuff better than them. We may have had less turnovers, that’s about it, but it was a really good game and O’Leary should be proud of the fight they put up,” said Hanna, 17.
SCRUM BALLS: In the premier women’s final Thursday, the Bulldogs (3-3) lost 42-12 to Bev Facey (6-0), last year’s champion.
Despite a strong first quarter the Bulldogs trailed 7-0. They tied it early in the second quarter before the Falcons took control of the match. It was 19-7 at halftime and 29-12 after three quarters.
Mckenzie Pusch and Jayme Siewert scored tries and Brianna Sinkler kicked a conversion for the Bulldogs, who gave Bev Facey fits with their tenacious tackling.
In league play Bev Facey whipped the Bulldogs 76-10.
In the semifinals the Bulldogs posted a 51-27 victory over the Beaumont Bandits (2-3) for a rare trip to the premier final.
Last year the Bulldogs were undefeated in five city conference matches before losing to Beaumont in the final 24-5.
