Skyhawks crushed by Crusaders

The St. Albert High Skyhawks were reeling in disbelief after one of the worst beatings in team history.

The Austin O’Brien Crusaders gutted the Skyhawks’ defence for six touchdowns in Thursday’s 42-3 rout at Riel Park.

“We’re a better football team than that,” said an unhappy Sam Johnson, head coach of the only tier III team in the metro Edmonton league’s Carr Conference. “We absolutely know we’re a better defensive football team than to give up 42 points. We’re coached better than that. We have better players than that. It just shouldn’t be happening to us. That’s unacceptable behaviour so we’ll fix what’s going on.”

The Crusaders (3-0 overall), ranked first provincially in tier II, scored 36 unanswered points after Danton Tait-Vanderheide’s 36-yard field goal with 8:58 remaining in the first half left the Skyhawks trailing 6-3. By halftime it was 28-3.

“It’s the first time that I’ve seen in my history here of guys not playing as well as we had hoped,” Johnson said. “I obviously didn’t do a good enough job of preparing them.”

The Crusaders scored touchdowns early and late in the first half. They capped off an early, long march with a one-yard TD run keyed by a 27-yard catch at the one on third down and nine. With 30 seconds left in the half, a 23-yard reception behind coverage resulted in another touchdown.

Austin O’Brien added two more major scores in the third quarter: a one-yard TD run capping a lengthy drive early in the quarter and a 17-yard scoring strike with 3:35 left.

“Our defence played pretty well in situations. There were times when we stopped them,” Tait-Vanderheide said. “Unfortunately we just couldn’t get things moving on offence.”

The Skyhawks are now 1-2 in the Carr and 1-3 overall.

“We’ve got to pick it up for the next game. It’s important we get a win,” Tait-Vanderheide said. “We’re going to keep our heads high and hopefully get back on the winning track again and head into the playoffs and provincials on a high.”

The Skyhawks are huge underdogs going into their remaining three games in the Carr schedule. They huddle up against the second-ranked tier I Salisbury Sabres (5-0 overall) Oct. 6, the first-year Paul Kane Blues (1-2 overall) Oct. 13 and the number-one ranked tier I Bev Facey Falcons (4-0 overall) Oct 20.

“We’ve got to line up and get ready to play. If we don’t we’re in real trouble,” said Johnson. “We’ve got to figure out what’s wrong and we’ve got to figure it out in a hurry. I just can’t put my finger on it right now. We’re going to go watch film and find out what’s going on.

“Maybe guys are thinking they’re better than they are and if they think people are going to hand us stuff because we step on the field that’s not the case. We have to go back to work and prepare to battle some people or it’s going to be a long season.”

Regardless of where the Skyhawks finish in the standings – six out of seven teams make the playoffs – they will compete in the tier III regional semifinals in November. The Skyhawks are ranked seventh in tier III behind Cochrane, Peace River, Rundle College of Calgary, Winston Churchill of Lethbridge, Cold Lake and Sylvan Lake.

“We’re looking forward to that. We’re hoping to win it. We’ve got a good team and I think we can do really well,” said Tait-Vanderheide, 17, a Grade 12 Skyhawk who saw action at cornerback, safety and receiver against the Crusaders.

Johnson denied the Skyhawks were caught looking ahead to the provincial playoffs.

“No. We’re not even thinking about that,” he said with a huff. “There is no talk of that.”

The previous week in the Battle of St. Albert, the Skyhawks coughed up a three-point lead late in the game and lost 13-10 to the Bellerose Bulldogs (1-4 overall). It’s the second year in a row Bellerose beat the Skyhawks after seven losses. It also marked the first time the Skyhawks played Bellerose without Paul Kane players in their line-up.

“I feel we didn’t lose too much talent this year,” Tait-Vanderheide said. “We have to deal with adversity like that and we’ve got to play with what we’ve got. Our seniors have really stepped up and we’ve got guys playing both ways. Those are positives we can build on.”