For the second time in three seasons the College Heights Cougars have earned their place in the provincial football semifinals.
They guaranteed their spot on the field next week at BC Place Stadium when they came from behind to defeat the Holy Cross Crusaders of Surrey 22-15 Friday afternoon in Burnaby.
The Cougars will play the winner of Friday’s night’s South Kamloops-Vernon quarterfinal in the BC High School Football Association double-A varsity semifinal Saturday, Nov. 23 at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.
After the Crusaders tied the game with a fourth-quarter touchdown, the Cougars engineered a 70-yard drive with three minutes left that resulted in Aiden Smith running into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game.
Dillon Piddocke booted the convert and the College Heights defence did the rest, keeping Holy Cross from threatening in what was a tense, close game throughout.
Piddocke had the ball at midfield in the first quarter on the second College Heights possession when he threw a pick-six interception that led to an early 8-0 lead for Holy Cross.
“We started the game off a little tentative, a little tight, may it was a little nervousness early on,” said Cougar head coach Grant Erickson.
“So they got up on us, but our defence just went to work. They tried all the stuff they had all season, that we watched on film and our defensive line and all of our defence totally stepped up.”
The Crusaders drove the ball deep into College Heights territory late in the first half and had four cracks at paydirt from 10 yards out but the Cougar defence prevented them from making it a two-score game.
“We refocused them and settled them down at halftime and once we knew that our defence could shut them down it was just a matter of us relaxing and going out and playing football in offence and we started moving the ball on the ground,” said Erickson.
“I thought they were going to be tough to move the ball inside and it turns out most of the stuff we wanted to run inside was working and we kept feeding Aiden. He was a warrior, coming back off the bench.”
Smith, who rushed for close to 100 yards in Friday’s game, was forced to the sidelines in the second quarter with a leg muscle spasms. But Lincoln Shiels spelled him off admirably until Smith was able to return to action and he proved unstoppable at times piling up yards in the second half.
Smith got the Cougars on the board with a 35-yard run in the third quarter and Piddocke got the two-point convert to tie it 8-8.
Piddocke, a Grade 11 quarterback, gave the Cougars a 15-8 lead with a one-yard sneak early in the fourth quarter.
On the ensuing series, Holy Cross caught the Cougars by surprise with a long TD pass tossed by Xander McCrone to Kalen Dizon and that tied the game again.
College Heights was moving the ball well on a dangerous-looking drive with five minutes left when Tyler Rohra Jr. had the ball swatted out of his hands and Holy Cross recovered the fumble, but the Crusaders unable to get into scoring range on the next series and that set up the winning drive. Smith’s second touchdown carry covered six yards. Holy Cross got the ball back with about a minute left and was unable to penetrate the College Heights line.
“Our defence was just playing hard tough football and playing smart, it was awesome,” said Erickson. “It never felt the other team was going to steal it form us because the defence was playing so well. Our line was putting those guys on roller skates and driving them back.”
The Crusaders had won five of six regular season games in the East Division and were favoured going in, ranked fourth in the province, while the Cougars, who won both their regular season games in the three-team North, were ranked fifth.
“We always say, is it more about the X’s and O’s or it about the Jimmys and Joes?” said Erickson. “The kids are on the field and they’ve got to look each other in the eye. Basically at that point it’s who’s going to quit first?
“Our guys will never quit. They all just stuck together.”
