Is this the year the Bellerose Bulldogs finally win the Battle of St. Albert?
“I sure hope so,” defensive back Galen Pon told the Gazette at Monday’s practice. “We’re psyched. We’re just so pumped to play the Skyhawks.”
The eighth instalment of the St. Albert showdown kicks off Thursday at 6 p.m. at Riel Park field. Gate admission is $5.
“It means a lot for us to play our cross-town rivals,” Pon said. “Over the summer that’s all I’ve been thinking about basically.”
The last head-to-head tilt between the senior teams at Bellerose and St. Albert High was the 38-0 shellacking by the Skyhawks in 2007.
“Last year we didn’t play them in the regular season but we played them [at the Don Guy Memorial Football Jamboree at M.E. Lazerte High School] and that was intense. That was the highest intensity we’ve ever had in a while and that was just a jamboree game too,” Pon said of the bitterly contested scrimmage in which both teams scored a touchdown.
In previous confrontations the Bulldogs have taken a beating on the scoreboard. Their closest result was the 17-2 outcome in 2006 as the Skyhawks led 17-0 at halftime.
“It should be a good, fun game Thursday,” said Marty Kipps, the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator. “I’m sure the guys will be a little bit more geared up and excited to play. A lot of these guys played with a lot of the St. Albert High players in the spring league season [with the tier II playoff champion St. Albert Storm] as well so that should make things interesting.”
In the metro Edmonton league’s Carr conference, the Bulldogs are 1-1-1 and the Skyhawks are 2-0.
“It’s been a bit of a slow start but we’re starting to pick it up a little bit,” said Pon, a Grade 12 Bulldog.
This year’s edition of the Dawgs is basically the same bunch that finished second in the Miles conference and 6-2-1 overall as the playoff semifinalists.
“I really appreciate the level of football that we’re playing now compared to last year when we would blow out teams. This year it’s tight. We compete every play. You don’t get freebies. The competition is a lot more harder,” Pon said.
In league play the Bulldogs struggled in the season-opening 6-6 draw against the Archbishop Jordan Scots (0-2-1) and lost 29-0 to the Bev Facey Falcons (3-0 in Carr and 6-0 overall), ranked second provincially in tier I (school population 1,250-plus). The 2009 tier I finalists and three-time defending Carr champions racked up their points in the first half.
Last week the Bulldogs tasted victory with an exciting 17-14 come-from-behind effort against the winless Austin O’Brien Crusaders.
“Overall we’re basically working better now as a team,” said Pon, who blocked a Crusaders’ punt with his chest and fell on the loose ball for a key play in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs gobbled up two fumble recoveries, picked off three passes and stood their ground three times with titanic third-down stands.
“Our strength has been our defence for sure because we cause turnovers,” said Pon, 16.
On offence the Bulldogs discovered the end zone for the first time this season, as Devin Kondro (four-yard TD in the third quarter) and Grayson Baker (game-winning three-yard TD catch with 36 seconds to play) scored to rally the troops from an 11-point deficit.
“It always takes offences a little bit longer to gel and now the kids finally have some confidence and they’re working together on the same page,” Kipps said. “Our first couple of games the guys were just missing assignments and weren’t sure what they were doing, whereas the last game they knew what they were doing, but just missed the execution side of it a little bit. Now we’ll try and build on their confidence and keep improving on what they’ve done.”
How Kipps’ offence will do against the Skyhawks’ terrorizing defence will make or break the Bulldogs in the big game. They will not have to worry about Tanner Doll, a ferocious Grade 12 middle linebacker, who was suspended by the metro league for his game ejection (25-yard major foul penalty) in the Skyhawks’ controversial 18-11 win over the Scots last month.
“Their defence looks like it flies around pretty good so we have to make sure we know our blocking assignments,” said Kipps, the third-year play caller for the Bulldogs who also coached the Storm’s spring league offence.
Tayler White (11-for-23, 151 yard and two picks) will start at quarterback after newcomer Ryan Ozunko (6-for-17, 103 yards and one TD against the Crusaders) took most of the snaps in his Bulldogs’ debut last week. Ozunko, a Grade 12 Bellerose student from Manitoba, is in Kansas this week with his baseball academy team.
The backfield tandem of Kondro (186 yards on 31 carries) and Baker (142 yards on 34 carries) will get most of the touches. Kondro, the senior Bulldogs’ MVP award winner in Grades 10 and 11, and Adam Anderson lead the team in catches with five apiece. Robert Blunden will also factor into the running game, and is 3-for-3 kicking field goals.
“Tayler White has been in this offence now for the spring league season and two seasons in high school so he knows it inside and out. It’s the same thing with Devin Kondro. He’s been playing now for me for three years. [Grade 12 linebacker] Cody Andresen is also picking things up pretty quick too in the backfield. We’ve got a lot of guys that are on the same page with my play calling and they have a good, general idea of what is going on at all times,” said Kipps, a former high school standout with the Lloydminster Barons and the all-time leading rusher in the history of the Simon Fraser University Clansmen, who set a team record of 884 yards on 153 carries in 2004.
