The metro Edmonton high school football season kicked off Thursday but the Bellerose Bulldogs failed to show up.
The 27-6 disappearing act was against the Harry Ainlay Titans in the Carr division one lid-lifter at Riel Recreation Park.
“No excuses. We did not play good football tonight,” said head coach Chad Hill. “We were on our heels the whole game. Poorly executed plays. Mental errors. It’s not the way we wanted to start the season.”
The Titans are historically one of the top Tier I (1,250-plus students) teams in the province.
“We knew opening the season with Harry Ainlay would be tough. They’re a very good football team. They’re a physical team. They’re a fast team. Last year they proved to a match-up nightmare for us,” said Hill of the losses of 23-6 in the second-last game in league play and 15-0 in the opening playoff round.
The Bulldogs struggled on both sides of the ball in their season debut.
“It’s a little bit of a wakeup call,” said running back Zach Nuttall. “It was rough. Hopefully we’ll bounce back next week.”
Preparation was part of the problem.
“I didn’t think we were particularly sharp in practice this week and that’s not to take anything away from Harry Ainlay but we need to improve ourselves in order to be competitive playing in the Carr conference,” Hill said.
Nuttall agreed. “Practice this week didn’t go so well. We weren’t focused. We were more concerned about who we were playing and we just didn’t play as a team today,” said the Grade 12 Bulldog. “We can play with them. If we played hard and played fast the whole game, including me, I think we could’ve maybe come out with a win today.”
Hill was asked if the team’s offence or defence troubled him the most.
“After this game I’m worried about all of it. I’m also worried about special teams too,” he replied.
The absence of playmaker Jaedon Carroll was noticeable. The Grade 12 kicker, returner, receiver, defensive back and backup quarterback was last year’s recipient of the junior Bulldogs’ MVP and outstanding special teams player awards for the undefeated division one champions.
“We were lacking, I thought, big play capabilities in certain areas,” Hill said. “We were also shallow on the D line with a couple of injuries, including two-way guy Ben Chretien. We know that we’re pretty paper thin this year so other players have to be able to step in and start when other guys go down. It’s football. Injuries happen. There is no excuse. You can’t ever say we lost because of injuries. The next guy has to be ready to go and tonight unfortunately I think some kids tried really hard but I don’t think mentally everybody was ready to go against a good team like Harry Ainlay.”
The Bulldogs started the game by stopping the Titans on third down and three at the Ainlay 51.
The second time on offence the Titans marched the ball 83 yards, culminating with a 16-yard touchdown run and the convert was good with 3:15 left in the first quarter. The drive featured two third-down conversions by the Titans after a catch-and-run of 30 yards to the Bellerose 53.
In the second quarter, on third and one, quarterback Morgan Sherban was stopped inches short of a first down and the Titans took over possession at the Bellerose 36. Another successful third-down play moved the chains en route to a three-yard TD run with 4:28 to go until halftime. The convert was unsuccessful.
The Bulldogs put points on the board after the Titans fumbled a punt by Sherban and Corbin Stewart recovered the ball at the Ainlay 18. On second and 10, Sherban swung the ball out wide for Nuttall to reel in around the line of scrimmage and he was eventually tackled short of the goal line at the one.
“I just saw the ball, tracked it, brought it in with my hands and just ran up field and tried to get positive yards to pump the team up,” said Nuttall, the junior Bulldogs’ outstanding offensive player and true rookie award recipient last year.
On the next play, Nuttall walked into the endzone with 62 seconds remaining. The convert was unsuccessful.
After the kick off the Titans ran the ball with authority 70 yards to pay dirt, capped off by a four-yard score with four ticks on the clock and the convert made it 20-6.
The last TD of the game was a 22-yard quarterback run on third and eight with 9:14 left in the third quarter and the convert was good.
Back on offence, the Bulldogs moved the ball from their 41 on a first-down completion to Eric Calkins and runs of 11 and 24 yards by Nuttall. On second and 10 at the 14, Sherban hit Stewart in the endzone but the Bulldogs were penalized with 6:07 to play until quarter time. The Bulldogs were also flagged on the next two plays after the TD was wiped out.
The Bulldogs will now regroup for the Austin O’Brien Crusaders. Thursday’s kick off is 7:30 p.m. at Clarke Park.
“We have to practice hard, bring up the intensity and just focus more,” said Nuttall, 17, who racked up 14 TDs and 1,146 yards on 88 carries for the junior Bulldogs in his first season of football.
The Crusaders are perennial Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) provincial contenders and another tough nut for the Bulldogs to crack.
“They’re a familiar foe. We’ve played them for years now. They’ve got a great coaching staff over there. What they run I think we probably know already without watching the film but they run it well so we’re going to have to get a little bit tougher in our run support on defence,” Hill said. On offence we’re going to have to get sustained blocking and we’re going to have to get some big play capabilities. I thought Zachary Nuttall had some nice burst but we’re going to have to get other guys making some big plays. Somebody has got to want to make a big play and we’re going to have to execute in order to win.”
