Bragging rights are at stake tonight when the Bellerose Bulldogs and Paul Kane Blues battle for high school men’s rugby honours.
Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. at Ellerslie Rugby Park. The winner will be crowned the metro Edmonton city conference champion.
“To play Paul Kane in the final would be pretty sweet,” said Zack Caines, after the impressive Grade 12 Bellerose winger scored two tries in Monday’s 37-0 playoff victory over the St. Albert Skyhawks.
In the north pool fixtures the Bulldogs stoned the Blues 25-0 April 28.
“We beat them before but anything can happen on any given day,” Caines said. “We’re going to come out prepared, focused and ready to play.”
The Blues qualified for their second straight city final by beating up the Archbishop Jordan Scots (2-3-1) 56-14 Monday in Sherwood Park. In the 2009 final the Blues lost 26-15 to the O’Leary Spartans to finish 1-5 overall. They are 3-4 this year on the strength of two playoff wins.
The Bulldogs are 3-3 overall after going 2-3 last year as the premier conference quarter-finalists.
“We’ve really come together after a tough regular season,” Caines said. “I’m pretty proud how the boys progressed.”
In a rare high school match on the St. Albert Rugby Football Club’s premier pitch the Bulldogs scored 10 points in the first quarter and led by 15 at halftime. They sealed the deal with four tries and a conversion in the last quarter.
“This was a big win today. Hopefully we can ride this into the final,” Caines said. “We had a really great game. We showed what we’re able to do.”
In league play the Bulldogs downed the Skyhawks 18-5 May 19.
“Both games were pretty similar except a few mental mistakes cost us this game and made it look a lot worse than what you actually saw today,” said Nathan Rasmussen, a versatile Grade 12 Skyhawk. “We started off a little better than how we finished up in the fourth quarter. We got a little down on ourselves at the end when they got those really quick ones.”
Caines, 18, opened the scoring in the sixth minute. A soccer-style boot of the ball by the Skyhawks allowed the nimble Bulldog to field it on the Bellerose side of midfield. After brushing off a couple of arm tackles the midget AA forward with the St. Albert Crusaders skated into the try area untouched.
Robert Blundell nailed the conversion and in the 13th minute he split the uprights with a long penalty kick.
In the second quarter, after the Skyhawks missed a penalty kick outside the 22-mete line, shifty running by Caines generated a try by Dave Granik.
Caines (short run off an overlap), Blundell (on a pass by Caines from outside the five-metre line), Granik (set up by Blundell) and Taylor Neufeld were credited with tries in the fourth quarter.
“SACHS played really hard. They came out flying,” said Caines, a returning Bulldog who hails from the Maritimes. “We only had one try in the first quarter but after we had a little pep talk we started gelling more. We were passing better and scoring tries. We ran well and were able to break some tackles and got some points up on the board. We communicated very efficiently too.”
The loss was the sixth in seven matches for the Skyhawks. Last year they didn’t field a team because of a lack of players.
“We’re like a new team. Nobody has really played before except for two people so the season went pretty well by that standpoint,” said Rasmussen, 17. “We’ve improved a lot on ball movement and knowing the rules and where to be and what to do in certain situations.”
After going 0-5 in the north pool, the Skyhawks foiled the Salisbury Sabres 34-22 in the quarter-finals. Matt Roth scored two tries and Scott McPherson added another, plus two conversions. Dustin Allen, Devin Kite and Rasmussen also crossed the try line. Roth and Allen were unable for the semifinal with a broken finger and illness, respectively.
“It felt good to win finally for once. Everyone was pretty pumped,” said Rasmussen, who gave the Skyhawks’ fans a brief thrill to start the third quarter against Bellerose with a spirited dash along the touchline but was forced out of bounds in front of the five-metre line, otherwise he would have scored.
