The road to the Alberta Bowl runs through the Austin O'Brien Crusaders for the undefeated Paul Kane Blues.
The winner of the Tier II north final Saturday will challenge the No. 1-ranked Foothills Falcons (11-0) of Okotoks or the No. 3-ranked Catholic Central Cougars (7-1) of Lethbridge for provincial honours next Friday in Calgary.
"It's one more obstacle in our way to getting to that provincial final and it's a big hurdle," said Rob Strecker, head coach of the No. 2-ranked Blues.
Kickoff is 11:30 a.m. at Clarke Park and admission is $5.
Last weekend the Miles division two champions improved to 10-0 after battling through adversity in Grande Prairie to defeat the No. 5-ranked St. Joseph's Celtics 45-28 in the north semifinal.
"It's pretty exciting right now, especially for the school. It's the first time in school history for us to play in provincials and winning a senior Miles conference final," said Frankie White, a super-fast Grade 12 slotback and defensive back, on the third-year Paul Kane football program.
AOB, the two-time defending Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) champion, is 4-4 after beating the unranked Lloydminster Barons 35-7 in Saturday's north semifinal at the Border City. It was the first game for AOB, a non-playoff Carr division one team because of points for and against, since Oct. 17.
"I know there are lots of people out there that will watch this game (against AOB) to see what happens, especially with them being in the Carr and us in the Miles," Strecker. "I know they were calling us out early and, well, here we are. We're going to play you and we'll see what happens."
The Paul Kane coaching staff viewed AOB game footage prior to the Miles playoffs, especially the 7-0 shutout by the Bellerose Bulldogs in a Carr game Oct. 4.
"We've sort of been glancing at things but it's not like we've been watching AOB like they've been watching us for the last five weeks. Every time we turn around we see all their guys in the stands watching us play," Strecker said of the No. 10-ranked Crusaders. "It seems like they run the same offence they ran last year. They ran that two fly with both of the Muamba brothers (Jonathan, the team's MVP nominee for the Haliburton Trophy in Carr, and Frederic) and they've got another good running back in the backfield too.
"They're basically a running team but they like to go over the top with those two guys also."
There is also unfinished business with AOB from last year in the Carr.
"We lost to them (17-14) so we want this one. It's going to be a big game and we want the win," White said. "We've got to focus on shutting down their running game. We've been pretty good all season with the passing game so we're OK there.
"We've also got to limit our penalties. That's one of the keys of the game to winning against AOB."
Slippery start
The Blues almost blew it in their provincial debut while falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter and then 21-14 before storming back with 31 unanswered points, including 24 in the second half, before the Celtics (9-3) scored with 30 seconds remaining.
"We didn't want this to be our last game. We didn't want to come home not happy. That was the goal for all of us going into the second half (and the game tied at 21). We wanted to play one more week and then hopefully the provincial final," said White, who dissected the Celtics' secondary for 173 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
It was the third straight post-season game the Blues stumbled out of the chute before running away to victory.
"We just can't have these starts," Strecker said. "As I mentioned to the boys a couple of weeks ago every game from here on in is going to get tougher and tougher and more challenging."
Strecker summed up the team's inner strength as "resilience and no quit" when things got sketchy against the Mighty Peace League finalists.
"When we go down there is no panic. They believe in one another. They just know someone will make a play at some point in the football game and (in Grande Prairie) guys stepped up on offence, defence and special teams and made plays," he said.
A slick field left the Blues spinning their tires before gaining traction offensively with Grade 12 quarterback Cory Knott at the controls. The Haliburton MVP in Miles completed 21 of 33 passes for 312 yards and the four TD strikes to White and rushed for 87 yards on six carries.
"What we played on was unbelievable. It was a skating rink. It took Cory right out of the game. He was almost a non-factor with his legs because we couldn't roll to the outside. As soon as you started running west and turned it up north-south, you're done. Guys were slipping and falling all over the place, but we dealt with it and persevered," Strecker said.
The Celtics pounded the ball on the ground to lead by 14 while the Blues struggled offensively.
"Those guys ran the ball hard on us. We couldn't slow them down and they just kept getting major chunks," Strecker said. "They were running this wildcat offence and fullback lead at us and they were just pushing us back."
With about six minutes left in the first quarter, Tyler Turner's 45-yard punt return put the Blues at the Celtics' 25. Three plays later, Knott connected with White on a 12-yard TD pass. The two-point conversion was unsuccessful.
About a minute later after the ensuing kick off, Turner intercepted a pass for a 50-yard pick-six. On the two-point conversion White survived a jarring hit to make the catch to knot it at 14.
On the kick off Jon Smith's tackled pinned the Celtics at their 15 but the Blues were flagged for offside. On the re-kick Taylor Rempel raced 95 yards into the house to give the Celtics the lead again.
However, two series later, the Blues punted and the opportunistic Theo Block scooped up a fumble from the return man and took it 25 yards to pay dirt with 1:30 left in the half.
"He lost contact with the football and it popped right into Theo's arms and he jogged it in," Strecker said. "Tyler's pick was huge to tie it up, but Theo's was just monstrous because of the range of emotions after us tying the score up and then having them take the kick off for a touchdown and then for us to get that fumble and go in at halftime tied at 21."
Second-half surge
With Big Mo on their side the Blues pulled away in the second half. A jacked-up defence allowed only one late TD while picking off multiple passes and the offence started rolling to generate 300 of the team's 460 total yards.
"The boys really brought it," Strecker said. "We made some incredible adjustments on our defence because with that wildcat and fullback lead they were just chewing up the field so we did some things differently and shut it down. We forced them to pass and it's tough to complete passes in those conditions. We shut their big guys down and our passing attack started taking over. We started hitting everything underneath with Frankie and Tyler and Theo and we started getting major chunks of yardage. When they started to adjust to that, Kieran Porter started taking over and we starting hitting really well inside because he is a great north-south runner."
Porter finished with 61 yards on 14 carries and the passing attack featured five catches by Jon Pharis for 52 yards, three catches by Turner for 75 yards and two catches by Block for 17 yards.
With six minutes left in the third quarter, Knott threaded the needle to White in the corner of the endzone for the 20-yard major to put the Blues on top for good.
"From there on in we just kept on scoring and shutting down their offence," White said.
Before quarter time, Knott hooked up with Turner for a 49-yard catch and run to the 16 and on the next play White caught his third TD pass.
The next time on offence, White turned a 15-yard reception into a spectacular 77-yard TD romp to seal the deal.
"I just ran to an open spot and waited for Cory to pass the ball and then I started running all the way to the endzone," said White, 18. "It means a lot scoring like that against a good team just like us. They're athletic just like us too."
Strecker described White's TD as a "thing of beauty."
"Frankie caught the ball, turned around and took one step and then it was a foot race and it was three guys he out-legged," he said. "Frankie was incredible. He always brings it every game."
With six minutes to play, Knott busted loose for 80 yards to the 10. Three plays later the Blues tried a 32-yard field goal attempt that was unsuccessful but on their next series kicker Nick Parrotta split the uprights from the 25 to make it 45-21.
