The Skyhawks are in position to accomplish what no St. Albert high school has done and that’s celebrate a provincial football championship. The St.
The Skyhawks are in position to accomplish what no St. Albert high school has done and that’s celebrate a provincial football championship.
The St. Albert Catholic High School-based Skyhawks can go down in history as arguably the city’s greatest football team with a victory Saturday against the Cochrane Cobras in the Tier III Alberta Bowl.
Kickoff is 2:30 p.m. at Foote Field and admission is $5.
“We’re super excited. We want to take advantage of the situation and bring home the win,” said Grade 12 linebacker Jack Zubick. “It’s a huge game for us. It’s going to be awesome if we win. It will be a big deal.”
The Skyhawks are the first St. Albert team to huddle up for provincial honours since the legendary Storm in Tier I in 1990 and 1992 against the L.C.I. Rams and 1997 against the Raymond Comets.
“It’s been a long time since a St. Albert team has been in the final so we’re all pretty ecstatic. We’re still playing the game we love and it feels great,” said Chandler Duff, a Grade 12 receiver and defensive back.
The Alberta Bowl will also mark the last football game for the majority of Skyhawks on a roster loaded with Grade 12s.
“It’s an awesome feeling to be in Grade 12 and play in the final for Tier III provincials, but at the same time it sucks because this is our last game. It’s going to be a lot of fun but by the time it ends it’s going to be a sad feeling,” said Spencer Zee, a dominating Grade 12 lineman.
Keeping their emotions under control on the verge of the most important game in team history has been the Skyhawks’ biggest challenge.
“We want to go into it thinking it’s like any other game. We don’t want to overdo it by thinking about it too much or else we might end up psyching ourselves out,” Zubick said. “We’re going to play our game and if we do that we should come out on top.”
Cochrane will be the Skyhawks’ stiffest test in the provincial playoffs after the metro Edmonton league’s Carr conference finalists pummelled the Peace River Pioneers 49-21 and slaughtered the St. Paul Lions 52-10.
Cochrane (11-1), ranked second in Tier III (school population 450 to 749), lost last year’s Alberta Bowl to the Stettler Wildcats, who had beaten the Skyhawks in the north final.
This year Cochrane upset the undefeated Crescent Heights Vikings of Medicine Hat 32-16 after trailing 14-0 in the south semifinal and last weekend beat the No. 8-ranked Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs (3-6) of Lethbridge 35-7 for its ninth trip in 11 years to the Alberta Bowl. The last championship win by Cochrane was in 2008.
“They’re a really good team and we’re definitely not going to take them lightly. We’re going to play to our best potential. We played them last year and lost (21-7 in pre-season), so hopefully we’re going to get a win this time,” Duff said.
The No. 6-ranked Skyhawks (9-3) have put together the best season in team history since 2000 as Carr champions and Tier I north finalists.
“It’s been a pretty good journey. We’ve got better and better ever since our first game (58-7 loss to Bev Facey in league play). We had a lot of injured players and it was basically our first day back from California (50-6 loss to the Great Oak Wolfpack in Temecula) but we kept learning and working hard and helping one another out,” said Zee, 17, a six-foot-six tackle and defensive end.
The only Tier III team in the tough Carr circuit is 6-1 in its last seven games. The only hiccup was the 51-14 loss to Bev Facey in the league final.
“As the year progressed we got stronger and stronger. Every time we practice we’re trying to get a little bit better so at the end of the season we’re right where we should be,” Zubick said.
Offensively the Skyhawks are led by an explosive passing attack. Grade 11 gunslinger Keith Zyla, a second-year Skyhawk from the Cooper City (Fla.) Cowboys, has been outstanding firing bullets to sure-handed speedsters Brendan Thera-Plamondon, Rocky Borrelli, Matti Thurlin and the underrated Duff.
“We changed our offence this year and it’s been working real good lately so we’ve stuck with it. We have a really fast-paced team and that helps with the routes that we run,” said Duff, 17, who has caught more passes and scored more touchdowns in four post-season games than in league play.
A jacked-up defence has been the backbone of the team all season. Carter Ganton, an exuberant Grade 12 linebacker, is the straw that stirs the drink for an athletic defensive unit with several two-way standouts.
“Our defence really meshes well together. We’ve got great communication. We’re vocal. We’ve got lots of chemistry together. We all trust each other to make plays,” said Zubick, 17.
To say he is proud to be a Skyhawk is an understatement.
“I like telling people that I’m a Skyhawk and saying that we’re in the final. Getting this far is awesome. We’re obviously thrilled.”
