The St. Albert High Skyhawks will huddle up as provincial contenders after going farther than expected in the Metro Edmonton high school football conference playoffs.
The fifth-ranked tier III team in Alberta is 3-6 overall in its first year without players from Paul Kane High School on the roster. The Skyhawks will meet the Peace River Pioneers in the north regionals on Nov. 12.
"My goal and my aspirations is this team is going to win tier III provincials. That has never varied since we started our season," said a confident Sam Johnson, head coach of the only tier III football team in the Metro Edmonton league's Carr Conference.
The winner of the Skyhawks-Pioneers will travel to play the Cold Lake Royals or the Stettler Wildcats in the Nov. 19 north final. The Alberta Bowl championship is Nov. 26 in Lethbridge.
In the Football Alberta tier III rankings, the Cochrane Cobras (9-0) are No. 1, followed by the Pioneers (6-1), Winston Churchill Bulldogs of Calgary (5-2), Cold Lake (7-2) and the Skyhawks.
"I think we'll do very well. With the boys we have we can do it," said Brad Hoddinott, a Grade 11 middle linebacker. "I'm excited. I'm ready to hit some guys I've never hit before."
The first high school team from St. Albert to compete in the provincial playoffs since the 2000 tier I Skyhawks is expecting the unexpected in Peace River against last year's provincial finalist. Officiating is a big question mark.
"I'm sure there will be some dads and uncles wearing stripes," Johnson said with a grin.
The scouting report on the Pioneers is they score in bunches but are vulnerable defensively. They host the Grande Prairie Composite Warriors in the Mighty Peace final Saturday.
"We'll get some film to see what kind of team they have. We'll talk to some people. We've got connections all over this fine province," Johnson said.
Carr semifinalists
The Skyhawks have a break in the schedule after they were crushed 42-0 by the Austin O'Brien Crusaders in the Carr semifinal Friday at Clarke Park.
Johnson gave the players a few days off to heal the wounds of that whipping before preparations began for the provincials.
"We'll go back to the basics. It's going to be like training camp all over again," Johnson said. "We'll get some key people back in the line-up and we'll go up there and try and show what kind of ball team we really are."
Injuries took their toll on the Skyhawks against the top tier II team in the provincial rankings at 8-0-1
"We knew it was going to be a challenge if we were at 100 per cent and we were nowhere near 100 per cent. AOB is a very tough team and you've got to play mistake free football to have a chance and we obviously didn't do that," Johnson said.
Earlier in the week the Skyhawks pulled off a monumental 32-28 playoff comeback against the Archbishop Jordan Scots after trailing 21-0 in the second quarter and 28-19 with under six minutes left in the game.
"The two day turnaround [between games] is very, very difficult. We were just so, so banged up too," Johnson said.
"We'll put this loss behind us. We'll go into provincials with a clean slate and we'll push through," said Hoddinott, 16.
The Crusaders scored on their first possession, a 12-yard run to cap off a lengthy 68-yard drive that was aided by an unnecessary roughness flag on the Skyhawks. The Crusaders also rushed for TDs of 11, 20 and seven yards to lead by 27 at the half.
The Skyhawks defence forced a couple of first-half turnovers – Emery Mindana recovered a fumble late the first quarter deep in Skyhawks' territory and Brendan Cunningham wrestled the ball away from a Crusader for an interception in the second quarter – but the offence couldn't capitalize.
In the third quarter, on first and 10 at the Skyhawks' six, an ill-advised throw by quarterback Brendan Thera-Plamondon was intercepted and returned for a touchdown by the Crusaders.
A six-yard TD run closed out the scoring. Andre Leduc also picked off a pass before the game ended.
"I felt we did pretty well as a team. Defence was definitely strong," said Hoddinott, one of the Skyhawks' leading tacklers in the loss. "We were missing quite a few guys and it didn't really work out as well as I thought it would, but it will get better when we get into provincials."
All-purpose player Danton Tait-Vanderheide and defensive standout Carter Gagnon were sidelined and quarterback Keith Zyla lasted only a few plays before Thera-Plamondon filled in behind centre after starting the game at slotback.
The Skyhawks finished 2-4 in the regular season, a mark Johnson said could have been better with a few breaks.
"It's been an up and down year. I thought we would've done a little bit better. Realistically we could've been a 4-1 team going into that last game against Bev Facey," Johnson said of the 63-14 throttling by Facey in Sherwood Park prior to the playoffs. "The boys have played very hard. I've never questioned their work ethic once. We've made some mental errors and with a high school football team you're going to have that.
"As we enter basically our third season now – we've had our regular season, we've had our playoffs and now we've got provincials – we have to look to limit those errors in order to be successful."
