Triple A finalists well-grounded
Ravens, Hyacks both relying on run game as they head into championship match
To hear Martin McDonnell tell it, the Terry Fox Ravens are doomed in tonight’s Subway Bowl Triple A football provincial final at B.C. Place Stadium if they get fooled by the sleight of hand-off.
“You get caught looking at the smoke and mirrors and you will be embarrassed,” McDonnell, the longtime Terry Fox bench boss, said of the misdirection-laden wing-T offence belonging to the New Westminster Hyacks, the Ravens’ opponents in the B.C. title tilt. “You need to be disciplined. You need to read your keys. You can’t just be looking in their backfield at everything that’s going on.”
This game, the last one of the high school football campaign, has various storylines in motion, and it could entice your attention this way and that.
Terry Fox is the reigning Triple A provincial champion, but it returns precious few players from the team that beat the Notre Dame Jugglers 17-14 in overtime with the B.C. title on the line a year ago. Its lineup lists 33 players, 22 of whom are in either Grade 11 or 10.
This is New Westminster’s first trip to the Triple A finale, but its 39-man roster includes 20 players who were part of the Hyacks team that won the Triple A junior championship two years ago, according to coach Farhan Lalji.
Terry Fox started the year as the No. 1-ranked team. New Westminster began as No. 2.
The Hyacks went into the playoffs as No. 1, while Terry Fox came in at No. 7, thanks in large part to a pair of October losses to St. Thomas More and Lord Tweedsmuir.
Terry Fox needed a late touchdown to beat the Seaquam Seahawks in the quarter-finals, getting a scoop-and-score from Oscar Nunez on a botched snap to the Seaquam punter with 1:41 remaining for the deciding points in a 28-21 win. New Westminster needed a late touchdown to beat the South Delta Sun Devils in the semifinals, as a 40-yard reverse from Sebastien Reid with 2:01 left proved to be the final tally in a 5245 triumph.
That’s all solid background information about the matchup. Don’t be deceived, though, people. Don’t lose focus on this fact: if the New Westminster Hyacks run their stuff and run it as well as they can, they’re going to be tough to beat.
For a little history, the Wing-T was developed by David Nelson when he was coaching at the University of Delaware in the 1950s. It’s a run-centred offence, with the various backs alternating between being ball carriers, blockers or even simple decoys.
New Westminster, with Lalji at the controls, has utilized it over a decade. It is the only team in B.C. that uses it with any regularity.
“That’s the thing you should do,” said McDonnell, who shares bench boss duties at Terry Fox with Tom Kudaba. “When we won a couple of championships a few years ago (in 2006 and 2008), we were running some stuff we borrowed from a team in Oregon and we were the only ones here running it then.
“In the end, it doesn’t really matter what you do. It matters that your kids believe in it, and their kids believe in what they ’re doing.”
The Ravens are a run-oriented team as well, prompting Lalji to say, “This isn’t going to be two hours, 45 minutes of high-flying, passing football.”
A good number of Terry Fox’s carries could go to quarterback Jevaun Jacobsen, something the Hyacks need to be ready for.
Jacobsen ran for three touchdowns in Terry Fox’s 28-21 win over St. Thomas More in the semifinals.
“If your first guy doesn’t take Jevaun down, he might run right past your second and your third guy,” Lalji explained.
The Hyacks and Ravens haven’t played since 2015, when Terry Fox came away with a 39-25 victory in a September exhibition game.