It’s looking like 2006 all over again for the St. Albert High Skyhawks.
The last metro Edmonton championship for the senior football team at St. Albert Catholic High School was celebrated 12 years ago and the Skyhawks can relive the feeling with a victory over the Archbishop Jordan Scots in Thursday’s division two Miles conference final.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Commonwealth Stadium.
“It’s been too long since SACHS won a city championship,” said Jovan Pallasigui, a Grade 12 right guard. “I hope we show up and show what the Skyhawks’ team is made off.”
To end the championship drought on the home turf of the Edmonton Eskimos would be “extra special,” according to Hunter Hoffman.
“Playing on that field and to have all the fans there is going to be really exciting and our team is really going to love it,” said the Grade 10 slotback and running back.
The Skyhawks are 7-1 as the No. 3-tanked Tier III (450 to 749 students) team in the province.
“We’ve been working hard. We’ve been waiting for this,” Pallasigui said. “But we know we haven’t won anything until we’ve won this game.”
The Scots, ranked eighth in Tier II (750 to 1,249 students), are also 7-1.
“They’ve matched our record so we have to work hard in the next few days because we know we’re going to have a good fight,” Pallasigui said.
In week two, the Skyhawks crushed the Scots 44-0 in St. Albert.
“We were really worried about their run game but we really shut that down really quickly,” Hoffman said. “Our run game is really strong as well and they’re going to want to look to stop that so we’ll have to throw the ball a bit.”
Hoffman noted the Scots “are a different team for this game and I think they know us a bit better,” he said. “We’re also very different. We have new people in new spots and that’s really changed the team a little, but we’re doing really well. All the rookies are just stepping up.”
Injuries late in the season to quarterback Ewan Vanderheide and two-way playmaker Jackson Ganton, a pair of Grade 11 standouts, had a ripple effect throughout the lineup that reverberated in the team’s only loss, a late-game 14-13 collapse to the O’Leary Spartans (3-4-1) in the second-last match before the playoffs.
“It’s a different team now,” Pallasigui said. “We just needed minor adjustments since we were counting on Jack and Ewan to be with us, but we have talented players and we know we can do it if we put our minds to it and actually show up and play.”
Regardless of Thursday’s result, the Skyhawks will host the Nov. 10 Tier III provincial north semifinal at Larry Olexiuk Field against the Mighty Peace league qualifier – No. 8-ranked Peace Wapiti Academy Titans of Grande Prairie or the No. 10-ranked Whitecourt Cats.
“We’re not really looking towards provincials right now. Our coaches just want us to focus on this game and what’s ahead of us right now and that’s winning this game,” Hoffman said.
The Tier III playoff winner is expected to host the No. 2-ranked Holy Rosary Raiders of Lloydminster or the No. 5-ranked Sylvan Lake Lakers in the Nov. 17 north final for the right to compete for the Alberta Bowl championship Nov. 24 in Fort McMurray.
“It’s hard to not ignore what we have to go through the next few weeks,” Pallasigui said.
Playoff comeback
The Skyhawks escaped Friday’s semifinal against the Leduc Tigers (3-4-1) with a come-from-behind 29-22 decision after beating the same team 20-13 the week before and both games were staged in St. Albert.“Leduc was a wake-up call since we did take some plays off,” said Pallasigui, 17. “We know we have to step it up for this game. We can’t be pylons. We have to actually show up as players and we also have to respect that team.”
The Skyhawks trailed 15-13 at halftime and 22-13 before tacking up 16 points with a pair of touchdowns and two-point conversions.
“We came out really flat for whatever reason and that’s on me,” said head coach Sam Johnson. “They really worked hard at stopping our run, which has been our game all year, and bullheaded as I am, I kept trying to run the ball, run the ball, run the ball.
“But we got a break at the end of the first half and scored a touchdown with Stony (Justin Stoneham) on a little bit of a trick play and then in the second half we took off.”
Mason Mildenberger and Hoffman were on the receiving end of TD passes from Kyle Torok-Both, a Grade 12 Skyhawk who has filled in admirably in place of the injured Vanderheide.
Down by one point, the Skyhawks put themselves into scoring range with some key first downs before Hoffman pulled off the decisive TD catch in the end zone with time winding down.
“Kyle laid it out perfectly right above my head. He gave me a good ball to make a play on,” Hoffman said. “Their guy just had terrible coverage and I kind of jumped up for it.”
To score the winning TD in a playoff game was a dream come true.
“Your teammates are really excited for you and I was very excited that I had the chance to do that for my team to win the game. It was just a really good feeling overall,” said Hoffman, 15, who also ran the same route for his first TD of the game. “Their guy wasn’t covering me at all. Kyle put it right in for me and it was an easy catch.”
