Foote Field – The Bev Facey Falcons were lucky to beat the St. Albert High Skyhawks by 37 points in the Carr conference final, according to the head coach of the Tier III provincial contenders.
"The score flattered them," said an upbeat Sam Johnson, after the Skyhawks lost 51-14 to Facey for the metro Edmonton high school championship on Saturday night. "I'm very proud of our boys. Some of their heads are hanging right now but we live to fight another day."
The lone Tier III (school population 450 to 749) team in the conference will now line up against the Peace River Pioneers in the north semifinal this Saturday at Riel Recreation Park. Kickoff is 1 p.m. Admission is $5.
The winner will host the St. Paul Lions or the defending champion Stettler Wildcats in the Nov. 17 north final.
The Alberta Bowl final is Nov. 24 at Foote Field.
Last year, the first time the Skyhawks competed in the Tier III provincial bracket, they defeated the Pioneers 35-14 in Peace River and lost 21-14 to the Wildcats in Stettler.
"We can do pretty good in provincials if we keep our heads up and we battle through. We've got three tough games and we can't take them lightly, otherwise it will happen like last year. We've got to go out and play hard," said slotback Brendan Thera-Plamondon.
In the Football Alberta rankings, St. Paul (8-1) is third, Stettler (7-1) is fourth, the Skyhawks (7-3) are sixth and the Pioneers (6-4) are seventh.
Ranked first and second is the Crescent Heights Vikings (9-0) of Medicine Hat and the Cochrane Cobras (9-1), respectively. They clash in the south semifinals.
The No. 8-ranked Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs (3-4) of Lethbridge and the No. 9-ranked Olds Spartans (4-5) also meet in the south semifinals.
Johnson is confident the Skyhawks will not let the loss to Facey (10-0) disrupt their preparation for the Pioneers.
"We're excited to get going. We've got five good days of practice booked and we're going to see if we can be ready for them on Saturday," he said.
Thera-Plamondon said the Skyhawks were not looking ahead to provincials going into the Carr final.
"We haven't really thought about it. This is our preparation week coming up so we'll think about it then," said the Grade 12 Skyhawk.
He was, however, disappointed by the outcome against Facey, ranked third in Tier I.
"We collapsed on ourselves," said the most dangerous Skyhawk in the final. "From beating our rivals (28-8 over the Bellerose Bulldogs in the semifinals), we were thinking that we could be the underdogs and we can take this one, so it stings right now,"
It was a closer score than the season-opening 58-7 debacle in Sherwood Park, when the Skyhawks were missing some key players.
In the final Facey led 14-7 after the first quarter, 22-7 at halftime and 29-7 after three quarters.
Grade 12 tailback Bryan Dobush, Facey's candidate for the Haliburton Trophy as the conference MVP, rushed for three TDs.
"We tried hard. We came out and hit hard. It was a good, hard-fought game. They just came out on top," said Thera-Plamondon, 17.
Passing attack
Grade 11 quarterback Keith Zyla, the Skyhawks' nominee for the Haliburton Trophy, threw a bunch of interceptions after shredding the Bulldogs' secondary for four TD passes earlier in the week.
In the third quarter, on first down after a pick by Rocky Borrelli at the Skyhawks' 27, Facey returned a Zyla interception into the endzone and the convert made it 36-14 with 7:22 remaining.
In the first half Facey dropped two sure picks and a roughing the passer flag wiped out an interception on the Skyhawks' second play from scrimmage.
The Skyhawks' talented receivers also dropped an unusually high number of passes, including a couple with TDs written all over them.
"(Against the Bulldogs) we were catching balls. This time we didn't catch a ball and that's the nature of the game," Johnson said. "Once again, the score flattered them."
The Skyhawks rarely ran the ball, but Zyla had some success on the ground for quality yardage. He dashed 19 yards for the game-opening TD with 7:46 left in the first quarter.
"We knew we would have a very, very difficult time with the offensive line we have to run the ball so we do what we do best, which is throw the ball. We're going to throw the ball if we're ahead. We're going to throw the ball if we're behind. We're going to throw the ball at practice. We're just going to throw the ball," Johnson said.
Zyla's TD was the first play after a catch and run by Thera-Plamondon for a 63-yard gain to the nine, where he was horse-collared out of bounds. Thera-Plamondon was livid no flag was thrown, and was penalized for objectionable conduct. Johnson called Thera-Plamondon over to the sideline, patted him on the helmet and told him to take a deep breath, then sent him back into the huddle.
The Skyhawks defence stuck Facey where it hurt on third and one at the two with a huge stop at the one to keep the 14-7 score intact.
Things heated up with only seconds left in the first half, when Thera-Plamondon was sent sprawling over top of the Facey bench from a push from behind by Styles Morgan.
Johnson was hot under the collar over the incident.
"There is no place for that! Kick him out of here!" he barked. "That's deliberate!"
Johnson got his wish. Morgan was escorted to the dressing room by two officials as the Skyhawks clapped the Falcon off the field with jeers directed his way.
After the dust settled, Facey went on to win its sixth Carr championship in eight-straight appearances in the final.
The Skyhawks were also the first St. Albert team to reach the Carr final since the 2000 champions from St. Albert Catholic High School.
