Clarke Park – The St. Albert High Skyhawks are thrilled to play the underdog role against the team to beat in metro Edmonton high school football.
The Carr conference final between the Skyhawks (7-2) and the defending champion Bev Facey Falcons (9-0) kicks off tonight at 7 p.m. at Foote Field. Admission is $5.
In the Football Alberta rankings, Facey is No. 3 in Tier I and the Skyhawks are listed sixth in Tier III (school population 450 to 749).
“It’s a David and Goliath thing. But you know what? We’ve got a slingshot and we’ve got a stone so anything can happen. That’s why you play the game,” said Sam Johnson, the Skyhawks’ jovial head coach, after the only Tier III team in the conference thumped the Bellerose Bulldogs 28-8 in Tuesday’s semifinal.
In the season opener Facey crushed the Skyhawks 58-7.
“We’re a different team now. We’re finally getting healthy. We’ll be ready,” said a confident Johnson.
The Skyhawks are the first St. Albert team to reach the Carr final since the 2000 champions from St. Albert Catholic High School.
“I’m so proud of our boys. People have been counting us out this year, saying we're this and we’re that, but these guys just kept their nose to the grindstone. They deserve all the accolades they get. They’re great kids,” Johnson said.
The fourth straight win by the Skyhawks was their most satisfying of the season. The ninth victory by the Skyhawks in 11 Battle of St. Albert clashes with Bellerose also proved their 14-13 come-from-behind decision against the Bulldogs in September wasn’t a fluke.
“It feels really good. A lot of them were saying that first win didn’t mean anything. Well, we did it again so what can they say now?” said Keith Zyla, the multi-talented Grade 11 quarterback, safety and punter.
The league MVP candidate carved up a weak Bellerose secondary with the skill of a surgeon doing open-heart surgery by throwing four touchdown passes.
The second-year Skyhawk from the Cooper City (Fla.) Cowboys connected twice with Rocky Borrelli in the second quarter on scoring plays of 61 yards on a catch and run and a game-breaking 47-yard reception in double coverage in front of the goal line before twisting himself into the endzone with four seconds left in the half.
Chandler Duff also made a highlight-reel 22-yard TD grab over top of two defenders on a perfectly-thrown ball by Zyla with 35 seconds to go before the break.
Brendan Thera-Plamondon also turned a short pass from Zyla into an electrifying 54-yard TD with 53 seconds to go in the third quarter.
“Our skill players stepped up and made some plays. Keith made some great throws. Chandler Duff, my god, he made some great catches. So did Rocky and Thera,” Johnson said. “What scares teams about us is our yards after the catch. They’ve got to try and tackle us and we saw tonight how difficult that is. Thera had a long run and Rocky had a long run too.”
On the first TD Borrelli spun away from the slow-footed Bellerose defenders for a lengthy romp to paydirt. The convert made it 7-1.
“Rocky is just a great athlete. I can always count on him to make a play,” Zyla said.
It was 8-8 when the Skyhawks stopped the Bulldogs on third and two at the Bellerose 48. First downs by Matti Thurlin and Zyla put the Skyhawks in position to shoot for the endzone. Zyla had time to find a receiver before locating Duff, who showed remarkable poise to stay in bounds along the sideline while reaching high to pluck the ball out of the air for the go-ahead points.
“The one to Chandler Duff was totally just out of the blue but I knew he could catch it,” Zyla said.
On first down after the kickoff, Brendan Cunningham picked off an ill-fated sideline throw by Josh Dobbins at the Bellerose 52.
It looked like the Bulldogs would escape the first half trailing 15-8, but a roughing the passer call allowed the Skyhawks to go deep for Borrelli to reel in Zyla’s offering.
The Bulldogs never recovered from the startling turn of events down 21-8.
“When we scored before halftime it got us amped up for the rest of the game,” Zyla said. “Once we build momentum we’re unstoppable.”
The Skyhawks closed out the scoring when the lightning-fast Thera-Plamondon burned the Bulldogs with a tremendous catch crossing the middle of the field before turning on the jets down the sideline to put the game out of reach.
“Thera is another great athlete we have that I can count on to make a play,” Zyla said.
A swarming Skyhawks’ defence had the Bulldogs scrambling to make first downs. Grade 12 tailback Ben Graunke, the main Bellerose offensive threat, was held in check and the quarterback tandem of Dobbins and Dallas Moroz had trouble completing passes.
“Our defence has been solid all year and it showed again tonight,” Johnson said.
Despite their low top-10 rankings in the weekly Football Alberta polls, the Skyhawks are favoured to represent the north in the Nov. 24 Tier III provincial final at Foote field.
Last year was the first time the Skyhawks competed in the Tier III playoffs and on the road they defeated the Peace River Pioneers 35-14 and lost the north final 21-14 to the Stettler Wildcats, the eventual provincial champions.
Next Saturday the Skyhawks huddle up against the No. 7-ranked Pioneers (6-3) in the north semifinal. Game time and field location wasn’t confirmed at press time, but speculation is the game will be staged at Riel Recreation Park.
“We’re so excited. It’s good for football,” Johnson said. “We’re happy with the position we’re in. Provincials has been our goal the whole year.”
Zyla, 16, said the Skyhawks are not looking past the Carr final.
“We’re going to go and play hard Saturday and see what we can do and then we’ll focus on provincials.”
He credits the coaching staff for putting the Skyhawks in position to succeed.
“The coaches have really brought us together as a team. We’ve been playing a lot harder as a team now and you could see right here tonight its paid off.”
