The PG Bowl-champion College Heights Cougars know that when they take to the field next Friday at Burnaby Lake Sports Complex to face the Holy Cross Crusaders, they’re going in as underdogs.
You can blame geography for that.
With only two other high school football teams to contend with in the vastness of north central BC, College Heights didn’t have the luxury of honing their football skills against a different opponent each week. In sharp contrast to the Crusaders, who play in the BC High School Football Association double-A East, facing full rosters drawn from equally large population bases.
College Heights and its crosstown rivals at Shas Ti Kelly Road Grizzlies and the Nechako Vikings of Vanderhoof are all that’s left of the North Division that once boasted seven teams and neither opponent had what it took to beat the Cougars.
But the Cougars certainly aren’t using their lack of competition as an excuse.
Going 5-2 after four exhibition games, two regular season games and one playoff – their 14-7 win over Nechako Valley in the PG Bowl final at Masich Place Stadium Nov 1 – the Cougars head into their final week of practice confident they’ve done all they can to get set to clash with one of the top teams in Greater Vancouver.
They know what’s at stake in the sudden-death affair. A win over the Crusaders will put College Heights into the provincial semifinals.
“I think it’s going to be a close game, I don’t think either team’s going to run away with it,” said Cougars head coach Grant Erickson.
Holy Cross went 5-1 in the season and finished second in the East, their only loss to 6-0 Robert Bateman of Abbotsford. The Crusaders are ranked fourth. College Heights holds the No. 5 ranking.
“They’re a big team, we’ve watched their film, and of course film doesn’t do it justice when you’re face-to-face with a big team and we don’t have a lot of big guys, so it’s going to be a challenge,” said Erickson.
“I would expect we’re going to run outside and use our passing game quite a bit. They look like a disciplined team and they don’t do a lot of fancy stuff, they just play tough football.
“We have some pretty good weapons on our team. Dillon (Piddocke) is a dual-threat quarterback. He has a strong arm and he can run.”
The Cougar offence revolves around Piddocke, who not only has scrambling ability but a golden arm that’s thrown for 1,373 yards in seven games – a College Heights school record. He completed 90 of 126 attempts for a 71.4 per cent rating.
Receivers Zach Loewen (412 yards) and Troy Weatherly (381 yards) are Piddocke’s primary targets and the sure-handed Smith piled up the 269 yards as the Cougars’ screen play specialist.
On the other side of the ball, Smith and Lincoln Shiels, both Grade 12 veterans, direct traffic in the linebacker lanes, backed by a well-schooled defensive line that includes Dray Barclay, Ethan Curzon, Devlin Dwinnell, and George Bigham, Hayden. Piddocke and Tyler Rohra Jr. have made their presence felt in the Cougar secondary with seven and three interceptions respectively.
In winning their seventh PG Bowl title, more than any team since the league began in 2004, the Cougars shook off a shaky start and got touchdowns on a goal-line sneak from Piddocke and a six-yard run from running back Smith to grab the lead in the first half.
The Cougars survived getting backed onto their own one-yard line on their opening series after they briefly lost starting centre Barclay to a finger injury. His replacements made a couple of gaffes snapping the ball in the opening series, but they didn’t allow a point.
“I’m really proud of my guys, that could have gone sideways fast but they held it together and held their composure, and once Dray got back in there they started rolling,” said Erickson.
“We had them hemmed into their own end and I don’t they got it past midfield the whole fourth. We had it down to their 20 three times and we just couldn't convert anything. It’s hard when you play each other three times, they know everything that you’re going to do.”
The Vikings made it a one-score game in the third quarter on an eight-yard run from Dexter Malo in the third quarter, but with starting quarterback Linden Buchanan forced out of the game early with a concussion, the Cougars kept the Vikings penned in their end of the field the rest of the way and it was game over.
Despite the presence of the junior Prince George Kodiaks, who have revived interest in the game, high school football in the region has taken a few hits in recent years.
What used to be a seven-team North, with teams from PGSS, Duchess Park, D.P. Todd, Correlieu (Quesnel), is down to just three teams. The Duchess Park Polars last fielded a team in 2022, while Prince George Polars (PGSS) dropped out before the start of this season. Erickson attributes the demise of those programs to a lack of coaches, especially those who double as teachers, where they have classroom access for recruiting.
College Heights and Shas Ti Kelly Road both have football courses in their schools, open to students in Grades 10-12, and that Erickson says that’s been a key to recruiting and his team’s success. In that class they work out together in the weight room, practice football skills in the gym, watch game film and devise plays on the whiteboard – all while the fields outside are buried in snow. By the time spring comes and they can get out on the field, the players have a much better understanding of their roles.
“We’re just so much further ahead when we get on the field because we work on that stuff,” said Erickson. “It’s a huge advantage for sure.”
Although the Cougars played only two regular season games they went 3-1 in exhibition, starting with a 27-6 win over Mount Douglas Rams in Saanich and a 17-14 loss to the Westsyde Wundas in Kamloops.
“We’ve come a long way,” said Erickson. “We took our lumps last year and this year guys have realty taken it seriously and have taken their game to another level and it’s fun to be part of it.”
The Cougars have a roster of 33, with an even distribution of players in grades 10, 11 and 12. The seniors coming to the end of their high school careers are Loewen, Smith, Shiels, Barclay, Rohra Jr., Jackson Moleski, Hayden Marrion, Owen Bass and Ben Duchsherer.
