The second and most important season for the St. Albert High Skyhawks kicks off in today’s provincial playoff.
The Tier III north semifinal against the Whitecourt Cats starts at 1 p.m. at Larry Olexiuk Field.
“Provincial playoffs is a good event to be in. It’s a lot of fun time. It’s some good competition. It’s always good to play a good game of football,” said Ryan Kilborn, a Grade 11 centre with the division two Miles conference finalists in the metro Edmonton league. “It’s definitely a high level. Each league is a little different from each other so it’s weird to experience the new things.”
The winner hosts the Holy Rosary Raiders of Lloydminster or Sylvan Lake Lakers next Saturday to determine the Alberta Bowl qualifier against the south rep at the Nov. 24 championship at Fort McMurray.
Last year’s north final was the fifth in six Tier III appearances since 2011 for the Skyhawks and the 35-10 loss to Holy Rosary in Lloydminster was the closest score in three straight against the Wheatland league team after shutouts by 61 points in 2016 at Clarke Stadium and 28 points in 2015 at the Border City.
“We have a really good chance this year. We have a really good team. We did last year but this year the team is a lot more motivated,” Kilborn said. “The potential on the team is huge and if we all play at our highest level, our team could be unstoppable.
“It’s all about how we execute our plays given to us by our coaches and that could make us a really good force in this province.”
The Football Alberta Tier III (450 to 749 students) rankings list the Skyhawks third and Whitecourt is seventh, while Holy Rosary is second and Sylvan Lake is fifth.
The Cochrane Cobras – Alberta Bowl champions the last four years and the first of five provincial titles in six years was 31-20 over the Skyhawks in 2012 at Foote Field – are ranked No. 1.
The Skyhawks finished 7-2 in the Miles conference after losing last week’s final 27-12 to the Archbishop Jordan Scots at Commonwealth Stadium. The second-place result was also the second in four years for the St. Albert Catholic High School team.
“At the beginning of the year you’re still kind of getting put together and then you progress a lot and during playoffs you’re kind of at your peak because you’ve been playing for so long, so I feel we can probably make a pretty good dent,” said running back Logan Lysohirka of the Skyhawks’ quest for provincial gridiron glory. “Our team is pretty built this year. Everyone has a friend to friend relationship. There is no friction really. We’re all here to win and play our game. We’re here to have fun as well, but we also want to win so it helps a lot when we all have the same goal.”
Whitecourt (5-3) qualified as the Mighty Peace league rep in Tier III in the 30-19 victory over the No. 9-ranked Peace Wapiti Academy Titans (6-3) of Grande Prairie last Saturday in the snow and members of the Skyhawks’ coaching staff in attendance at the game in Whitecourt.
The scuttlebutt is Whitecourt runs a double wing offence.
“They’re looking like a pretty good team but our coaching is going to be good for countering the way they play the game,” Kilborn said.
Home-field advantage favours the Skyhawks.
“We’re undefeated (7-0) on it so far so it’s good to keep us in our comfort zone for a bit,” Kilborn said.
“It’s pretty cool to be at our own field,” Lysohirka added. “We don’t have to travel so it’s not a big hassle. We can feel more comfortable and compelled to win because we’re at our own field and we’ll have our fans.”
The biggest question mark is how the Skyhawks respond to losing to the Scots (8-1) after beating the Sherwood Park squad 44-0 Sept. 14 in the second game of the season.
“It’s obviously tough, but we're doing a good job getting over it and just focusing on provincials and putting that behind us,” said Kilborn, 16, one of the rare Skyhawks in team history to start at centre in Grade 10 as a sure-handed snapper.
The Scots, ranked sixth in Tier II (750 to 1,249 students), rattled the Skyhawks in the second half with a potent running attack led by Sean Bleiken, the Miles conference MVP. The Scots battled back from a 12-7 halftime deficit to lead 14-12 after three quarters and 20-12 with 6:42 to play.
“It’s like a bad dream. You’ve just got to get over it and shrug it off,” said Lysohirka, 16, who also punts in addition to serving as the team’s leading rusher with 369 yards on 54 carries in seven regular-season games. “It totally motivates us to not slough off as much so we can complete all our tasks.”
