Last week’s bounce-back game for the Bellerose Bulldogs brought out the very best in quarterback Morgan Sherban.
The Grade 12 Bulldog completed 16 out of 20 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns and led the team in rushing with 88 yards on 11 carries for another score as Bellerose knocked off the Austin O’Brien Crusaders 38-8 at Clarke Park.
The Bulldogs were coming off a disappointing 27-6 effort against the Harry Ainlay Titans (1-1) in the Carr division one season opener Sept. 3 in metro Edmonton high school football, prompting head coach Chad Hill to declare: “Somebody has got to want to make a big play.”
Sherban, 17, took the challenge to heart.
“I had a pretty bad game,” said Sherban of his 7-for-17 performance for 45 yards against the Titans. “This game I was doing really good. Chad said I did what he expects of me and a little bit more, which means he basically said that he expects that kind of game out of me every game.”
Sherban threw TD passes in the first quarter of eight yards to Jaedon Carroll on a catch and run and four yards to Corbin Stewart, who pulled off an acrobatic grab in the endzone.
A questionable holding call also wiped out a 65-yard catch and run TD by Carroll.
In the second quarter, Sherban scored from the four-yard line on a designated quarterback run and later hit Eric Calkins on a short TD reception.
Carroll also booted a kick-off for a single point as the Bulldogs led 29-0 at halftime.
Stewart’s second TD was a 22-yard strike down the sideline from Sherban in the third quarter and Carroll kicked his fifth conversion of the night.
The Crusaders (0-2) got on the board with a short TD run before quarter time.
“The first half was great. We did awesome on offence and defence and all around but in the second half we started to drop the intensity a little bit and I think the score should’ve been higher,” Sherban said.
Calkins led the Bulldogs in receiving yards with 80 on three catches, Stewart had 65 yards on five receptions and Carroll gained 59 yards on six grabs.
Colton Meronyk was credited with eight tackles and 10 assists, Matt Heinrichs made six tackles and Drew Morison had five tackles and 11 assists.
“We had our jitters (against the Titans) because a lot of the kids on our team were juniors from the season before and we had a huge graduation (28 players) but we finally clicked against AOB. We were working together the way we should be,” Sherban said.
Friday the Bulldogs huddle up against the Jasper Place Rebels (1-1) at 2 p.m. at Johnny Bright Park.
“The AOB game was definitely a good bounce-back game for us but JP will be even better if we can beat them,” Sherban said.
Last year the Bulldogs prevailed 30-28 over the Rebels on Jasper Place High School’s homecoming day to kick off the season.
The junior Bulldogs also defeated the Rebels for the metro league’s junior division one championship last year (56-0) and 2013 (21-17).
“We will see a lot of run and a lot of wedge action from them,” Sherban said.
This year, instead of six teams making the playoffs only the top four advance, so every game is a must-win and beating the Rebels would be a step in the right direction towards a playoff berth for the 10th-ranked Tier 1 (1,250-plus students) team in Alberta.
“There is a little bit more pressure with the playoffs but we’re really taking it one game at a time and if we do that and we focus on the teams we’re coming up against each week I think we can be the best team in the league and compete with Harry Ainlay, and of course Bev Facey (the defending champion),” said Sherban.
The division three MVP with the 2013 metro league’s Gilfillan champion Fort Saskatchewan Sting joined the Bulldogs last year and was 53-for-102 passing for 765 yards, five TDs and three interceptions. He also ranked second in team rushing with 334 yards on 91 carries and two TDs.
Sherban’s goal in his last year at Bellerose is simple.
“The only rough thing about the senior year for football is going to be finishing with great grades for university that I’m going to be going to hopefully,” said the midget St. Albert Storm player and last year’s rookie of the year on the Bulldogs.
