Johnny Bright Park – The St. Albert High Skyhawks cleared another hurdle in their path towards a provincial football championship in the Tier III playdowns.
The down but never out Skyhawks banded together like brothers to score 22 unanswered points while tightening up defensively after the Peace Wapiti Academy Titans’ game-opening touchdown 53 seconds into Saturday’s north semifinal.
The Skyhawks also lost the services of Grade 12 quarterback Sam Cuciz to a lower-body injury on the team’s third offensive series of the first quarter.
“There was a lot of adversity,” admitted Sam Johnson, head coach of the Skyhawks, after the satisfying 22-7 victory. “But our boys always show up to play. They played with a lot of courage and a lot of heart and that’s what we want them to do.
“We just stayed physical and stayed with the game plan. Bad things are going to happen and good things are going to happen and we just wanted more good things than bad things.”
The next obstacle is the undefeated Holy Rosary Raiders in Saturday’s north final and it’s a noon kick-off at Clarke Park.
“It’s going to be all about how hard we work in practice and how much we really want to win it,” said Ryley Onyschuk, a Grade 11 defensive demon in the secondary against the Titans with two interceptions and was credited with a fumble recovery.
Last year the Skyhawks were shutout by the Raiders in the north final 28-0 and the Lloydminster-based team went on to lose the Alberta Bowl 55-0 to the Cochrane Cobras after winning the Tier IV (449 or less students) provincials in 2014.
This year the Raiders celebrated their third Wheatland Football League championship in a row and the final was 27-0 over the Lloydminster Barons, the same team that beat the Paul Kane Blues 22-15 in Saturday’s Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) north semifinal.
The Raiders (11-0) are second and the Skyhawks (4-5) are seventh in the Tier III (450 to 749 students) Football Alberta rankings.
“They’re a very physical team and a big team,” said Johnson of the Titans, who participated in the Skyhawks’ spring jamboree. “We have to play error free football to stay in the ball game with them. That’s our goal every week but we’re going to work real hard this week in practice and hope we get a couple of breaks from the football gods and hopefully we’re right there at the end.”
The Raiders sank the No. 3 Sylvan Lake Lakers (8-1-1) in the north semifinals 24-16 for the rematch with the Skyhawks.
The north winner will battle No. 1 Cochrane (8-0), the two-time defending champion, or the No. 4 Cardston Cougars (6-3) in the Nov. 26 Alberta Bowl in Calgary.
“We’re confident now and I think we take the win and go to the provincial final,” said Christian Pulis, a diminutive but dangerous Grade 11 running back who toppled the Titans with a pair of explosive TD runs while racking up 132 yards on 15 carries.
The north final is the fourth in six years for the Skyhawks as the Tier III metro Edmonton reps after Paul Kane decided to form its own football program in 2011 after serving as a feeder school for the St. Albert Catholic High School football team.
“People look down on us because we have 400, 500, 600 kids but we can play with anyone here, honestly. We just work the hardest and we have great coaches,” said Pulis of the only Tier III team in the Miles this year.
“I’m very, very proud to be a Skyhawk.”
The Skyhawks and the No. 6 Titans (5-5) were coming off losses in their league semifinals against the eventual champions and the north playdowns marked the first game for both teams in two weeks. The Miles conference division two Skyhawks fell 26-0 to the Strathcona Lords and the Mighty Peace league Titans took it on the chin 45-7 against the St. Joseph’s Celtics of Grande Prairie and the No. 1 Tier II team in the province.
The Titans, also from Grande Prairie, needed only two plays to reach the endzone after the Skyhawks kicked-off to start the game. The first play from scrimmage at the Titans’ 47 was a long incomplete throw but a late flag was thrown and the pass interference call put the ball at the Skyhawks’ 48. On the next play, the Titans ran the ball down the middle to pay dirt and the conversion was good.
“We didn’t get nervous when they scored, we just let it go. The play is over and it was on to the next one,” Onyschuk said.
The Skyhawks replied on their first offensive series as Pulis accelerated through the heart of the Titans’ defence for the 47-yard major.
Francesco Mercuri pulled off a leaping catch in the corner of the endzone on the two-point conversion throw from Cuciz and managed to stay in bounds to put the Skyhawks on top at 8-7.
“It really set the tone. It got us back in it and got us back into the right mindset. We just forgot about that first one (by the Titans),” Pulis said of the bounce-back score. “Our defence, after that first one, gave up nothing after that. It was insane how our defence stepped up.”
“We worked really hard to do those things in practice. We just worked harder than the other team,” added Onyschuk, 16. “It’s exciting to win it the way we did.”
With the Skyhawks back on defence, a roughing the passer flag nullified Kyle Torok-Both’s interception at the Titans’ 50. Torok-Both also disrupted a pass play in the second quarter and the Titans in Skyhawks’ territory.
With 48 seconds left until quarter time, Cuciz slung a desperation pass towards the endzone on third and six at the Titans’ 30 and fell awkwardly backwards as a defender landed on top of him. The third-year Skyhawks’ starting quarterback, who also punts and plays safety, needed assistance limping off the field while favouring his right leg.
Two plays later, the Titans coughed up the ball and Onyschuk led the charge to recover it at the Titans’ 37. The Skyhawks lined up with Adam Callbeck behind centre and a strange sequence of events occurred: a first-down run by Pulis was called back because of holding, a fumble recovery by the Titans was wiped out over an offside infraction and in the first minute of the second quarter the Skyhawks fumbled the ball on the exchange and the Titans got it back at their 29.
The second TD for the Skyhawks was Callbeck hooking up with Connor Lotoski, a huge target at slotback, for a 34-yard strike to cap off an 80-yard drive with 1:43 to go in the half. Lotoski squeezed the ball with his mighty mitts around the five and trotted in and on the two-point conversion smothered the ball with another big catch to put the Skyhawks up by nine.
The drive featured a couple of completions to Lotoski, slippery runs by Pulis and a third-down conversion by Callbeck.
After the kick-off, Ralph Philias snuffed out a reverse in the Titans’ backfield for a seven-yard loss and on second down Onyschuk made a basket catch for his first interception of the match at the Titans’ 47.
A pass interference call on a deep throw by Callbeck to DeAmonte Overman put the Skyhawks at the 20 and another great snag by Mercuri advanced the ball to the five.
On third and goal the Skyhawks attempted a 14-yard field but Jordan Sperling's kick was blocked and the Titans tracked it down at their 31.
On first down, Robin Arguelles picked off a pass and on the return was pushed out of bounds at the two with 3.6 ticks on the clock.
The next play, Callbeck was intercepted in the endzone to end the half.
“Adam came in and made some mistakes as a guy with not a lot of playing experience will do, but he led us to some points and he helped us hold on to the victory. He didn’t make any glaring mistakes that cost us and I’m happy with the way he played,” said Johnson of Callbeck stepping in for Cuciz, who joined a bunch of regulars too banged up to play or were injured in the game.
“Whatever 24 guys we’ve got ready to go next week that’s who we’ll play with.”
A second-half defensive stalemate was highlighted by Onyschuk’s interception in the endzone in the third quarter, a couple of clutch tackles by Danny Johnson for loss of yards and another pick by the Skyhawks, this time by Philias in the last minute of the game.
“We played hard and they played hard. It was a physical game but we wanted it more,” said Pulis, 16.
With 2:22 remaining, the Skyhawks took over the ball at midfield after another third-down stop. A couple of plays later, and the Skyhawks looking at first and 15 at the Titans' 48, Pulis busted loose for his second TD to seal the deal.
“My teammates helped me so much. They cleared the way for me. When I cut and see the open hole, it’s the best feeling in the world,” said Pulis, who also spent time at defensive halfback in the win.
