For the second year in a row the Bellerose Bulldogs are in the hunt for high school rugby honours.
Last year’s city conference champions are chasing after the premier title in the metro Edmonton league and a berth at the tier I (4A schools) provincials.
“Winning premier is definitely our goal for this year,” said scrum-half Galen Pon after the Bulldogs grounded the St. Albert Skyhawks 35-14 Wednesday at the St. Albert Rugby Football Club. “A good core of us Grade 12s are leaving this year and I would love to go on another championship run.”
The veteran line-up of Bulldogs is 2-0 in the abbreviated metro fixtures after losing the Sherwood Park pre-season tournament final to the Sturgeon Spirits on April 30.
“It definitely showed where we’re at and what we need to start working towards if we want to get to where we want to get,” Pon said.
The major difference between last year’s 4-3 record and the current start by the Bulldogs is teamwork.
“We share the ball a lot more than we did last year. Against the better teams you have to share the ball and we’ve been doing that really well,” Pon said. “Our team is a lot smaller this year too so we’ve been playing a lot more smarter rugby.”
Pon, 17, is among several Bellerose football players making an impact on the pitch.
“Our strength as a team is just being tough. We hit the other team. We don’t wait to get hit,” said the defensive back and the Bulldogs’ special teams player of the year in Grade 12. “We also have more heart than a lot of teams and that is going to take us a long ways.”
In Monday’s league opener the Bulldogs beat the O’Leary Spartans 29-17 despite a rash of penalties.
“We were really shaky that game but we definitely picked it up today. We played much better,” said Pon, who scored two tries against O’Leary and ran in two more tries against the Skyhawks.
Kieran Fraser, Steele Bazuk, Alex Carter, Lewis Biamonte and kicker Robert Blunden also turned in strong offence performances for the Bulldogs.
It was 25-0 in the third quarter when the Skyhawks rattled off back-to-back tries. The first was a penalty try, attributed to Nathan Gies. The next try was an end-to-end rush by Liam McNamara through several Bulldogs before placing the ball behind the posts. Gies converted both scores.
“It was a tough game,” Pon said. “We did get a little sloppy for a bit in the second half but we quickly picked it up.”
Skyhawks improve
Skyhawks coach Angus MacDonald was happy to see his team do as well as it did with only three players with rugby experience.
“It was a good, hard-fought battle by both sides,” MacDonald said. “It was just a lack of experience on our side that really hurt us. We’re only playing in our second game. Bellerose has a strong side and they played in a tournament beforehand. Having that experience really helped them come out on top.”
McDonald said the Skyhawks showed marked improvement against the Bulldogs after losing 47-10 to the defending premier champion St. Francis Xavier Rams on Monday.
“It was heads and shoulders above what happen in the SFX game. We showed improvement in tackling. We didn’t let them run over us for the most part.”
Basic rugby knowledge was another area of improvement. They had a good idea about penalties and where to be on the field for positioning,” said MacDonald, a prop with the St. Albert senior men’s team.
He is encouraged by the team’s spirit despite the 0-2 start.
“Our determination is pretty big, even though there is a lot of inexperienced players. We’ve had two losses and they’re still pumped and ready to go and really excited about the sport, which is always good to see.”
Playoff picture
The last games in pool play before the playoffs are Wednesday at 4:45 p.m. The Bulldogs play Sturgeon (1-0) and the Skyhawks tackle the Paul Kane Blues (0-2) in St. Albert.
Because of the late start to the season, the league went with four pools of three teams each divided into a north and south division. After the crossover pool games within the division, the top two teams in each pool advance to the May 24 premier quarter-finals. The four bottom teams compete in the May 25 city conference semifinals.
The premier and city finals are June 1 at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
Meanwhile, in the tier II (3A schools) provincial playdowns the Skyhawks will meet the winner of the Fort Saskatchewan/Beaumont playoff on May 30 to determine the metro rep in the Edmonton zone final in early June. Provincials are June 10-11 in Calgary.
