The Parkland Predators knocked the wind out of the St. Albert Storm with eight touchdowns in Sunday's rout in midget spring league football.
In the 56-7 victory Parkland whipped up six scoring plays to lead by 35 at halftime at Clarke Park.
"That team looked better than they really are, just by the way we played. We could've played a lot better than we played today," said Keith Zyla, a Grade 10 quarterback/safety for the Storm.
Parkland rolled up 23 first downs and 219 rushing yards on 22 carries against a leaky Storm defence. Three quarterbacks combined for 13 completions on 17 attempts for 199 yards.
The Storm was held to only seven first downs.
"We need to work a lot more in practice but the main thing is defence. We need to work on tackling and everything else," Zyla said.
In the first half Parkland needed only seven plays from the opening kickoff to drive 88 yards. Three pass plays helped set up a five-yard rushing major 4:52 into the game.
On the Storm's first possession Zyla hooked up with Brendan Thera-Plamondon for a 61-yard TD to cap off a sudden 87-yard drive. Thera-Plamondon had enough separation on the defensive back to pull in the pass for a short trot into the end zone.
"I just saw Brendan wide open. I know he is a great receiver so I just threw him a long one," Zyla said of his St. Albert High Skyhawks' teammate.
On the ensuing kickoff, Parkland's returner split through coverage before eluding a final tackle for the go-ahead TD.
In the opening minute of the second quarter, Parkland's quarterback avoided a sack by Garrett Meek and found a receiver in the end zone to complete a 69-yard drive.
Parkland's fourth TD march covered 102 yards. The key play was a 47-yard reception to the three where Zyla made a sideline tackle to temporarily stall the scoring drive.
Before the half ended, Storm quarterback Dallas Moroz was picked off twice and Parkland converted the turnovers into a pair of TDs.
Parkland rounded out the scoring with two TDs in the second half. Great extra effort by Zyla prevented another potential score when he stripped the ball from a defender, but that came after he had fumbled it away when hit in the backfield around the Storm 40. After the sack Zyla chased down the defender and knocked the ball out for Nathan Pytel to recover at the Storm 20 on the second last play of the third quarter and Parkland in front 49-7.
"I knew I needed to get back up and force it," Zyla said. "I just tried to make the biggest impact I could on the game."
Zyla, 16, finished his first midget spring league game in Canada with three completions on 11 attempts for 79 yards while splitting quarterbacking duties with Moroz. The six-foot-three transfer student from Fort Lauderdale also gained 26 yards on four carries and was sacked twice. On defence he tied Jacob Neuls for the second most tackles with three. Ryan Shorten led the team with nine tackles.
"It's a lot different than in Florida. It starts a lot later in the year there and here it's really cold," Zyla said. "It's good that kids on my own team from SACHS are out there. We can get used to each other's speed and get used to playing with each other so that will benefit our team a lot."
Playmaker
The backup quarterback with the Cooper City Cowboys in 2010 started for the Skyhawks in his first season of Canadian football and was named the team's rookie of the year last season. In the regular season he was 38-for-93 passing for 514 yards and three TDs and was picked off five times. He also ranked second in team rushing with 248 yards on 30 carries for two TDs.
"It was a great season, especially coming to Canada. Coach [Sam] Johnson gave me a shot to play quarterback and I made the best of it," Zyla said.
In the metro Edmonton playoffs Zyla fired a 36-yard TD strike to Thera-Plamondon with 72 seconds remaining to beat the Archbishop Jordan Scots 32-28 in the Carr Conference quarter-final.
In the Tier III north regional playoffs, Zyla combined with Thera-Plamondon for three TDs of 50 yards or longer, including a 65-yard dart in the 35-14 win in Peace River.
In the north final, Zyla hit Danton Tait-Vanderheide twice for TDs, but his third-quarter interception was returned for the game-winning TD in the 21-14 loss in Stettler.
"I think about that all the time. We should've won that game," Zyla said. "My goal for this season is try and get SACHS a provincial championship."
The next Storm game is Thursday against the Millwoods Grizzles. Kickoff is 8:30 p.m. at Johnny Bright Park.
