Time ran out on the Knights bid for consecutive provincial championships.
Despite a valiant effort the Holy Trinity Academy Knights were defeated 35-19 by the undefeated and top-ranked St. Joseph’s Celtics in the Football Alberta Tier II Provincial Championship, Nov. 26 at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.
“It was a great opportunity win or loss,” said Knights Grade 12 linebacker Tyler Jensen. “We played a great game as a team and had some great stops on defence, great plays on offence. The Celtics are a strong team, but we put up an exceptional fight against them.
“At the start of the season nobody thought we would come through like we did and that’s why win or loss we’re champions off the field.”
The middle two quarters told the tale in the final with the teams knotted at 7-7 after the opening 12 minutes.
Celtics tailback Duncan Critch, who finished with 216 yards rushing, opened the scoring on a 30-yard touchdown run.
The Knights countered with a methodical drive, moving the sticks with interior running.
On a third-and-short, Michael Eagle Bear broke a tackle in the backfield and then about a half dozen more as he cut it to the outside for a sublime 40-yard touchdown run in the final seconds of the quarter.
The Celtics, based out of Grande Prairie, took control in the second quarter with a pair of touchdowns along with a blocked field-goal.
Late in the half, St. Joe’s quarterback Cade Labrecque scrambled out of the pocket on third-and-long and found receiver Carter Kettyle in double-coverage in the end-zone for a successful Hail Mary to increase the lead to 21-7 going into halftime.
“I think early on, the second and third drives we had to say to the guys ‘look, relax and play football, do your job and trust your teammates to do theirs,’” said Knights head coach Matt Hassett. “That was a bit of it early on, but I thought our offence did a really good job matching a lot what they did.
“Even if we didn’t score we would make several first downs and chewed up the clock.”
In the second-half, turnovers got the better of the fourth-ranked Knights.
HTA quarterback Ryan Petersen was picked off in the Celtics half by Kettyle, who jumped the route on the targeted receiver and returned the pick-off to the end-zone for the pick-six. After HTA fumbled in the red-zone on its next drive, the Knights were able to punch it in later on a goalline run from Eagle Bear.
The teams would exchange majors in the fourth-quarter with Grade 10 runningback Jake Bourdin adding a four-yard touchdown run in the late stages.
“We knew we would have to play pretty close to flawless,” Hassett said. “And I think defensively we did a pretty good job because we knew we weren’t going to completely stop them. It was just keep them close and we wanted to keep them to under 30 points and, I guess, defensively we were able to do that.
“The turnovers just killed us and you just can’t turn it over that much in a championship game and expect to win.”
The Knights finished the game with a 530 to 454 yard edge in total yards on offence with Eagle Bear’s 194 yards rushing leading the way along with Marshall Hartwell’s 80 yards on the ground and Chris Peloso’s 71 yards receiving.
Petersen had 146 yards throwing and added 47 rushing.
Eagle Bear, a Grade 12, was able to showcase his versatility as a receiver, runningback and even taking snaps out of the wildcat formation down the stretch.
“He’s a special player,” Hassett said. “And I think maybe because of his size he hasn’t gotten a lot of interest, but I think after that performance against a team like that shows he can play at the next level for sure.”
Defensively, Jensen registered a team-high seven tackles from the linebacker position, with defensive back Carter Smith adding six tackles and a sack.
“We were the underdogs and it was a great opportunity to show people and prove them wrong and come back a lot stronger than the beginning of the season,” Jensen added. “At the beginning we were a newer team, but just grew and developed.”
The Knights opened the season with two losses, including a 58-6 defeat at the hands of the Celtics.
From there, they went onto win seven and draw one of their final 10 matches to get back to the provincial final for the third consecutive Tier II postseason.
“We were a lot closer than I think a lot of people would have thought going in,” Hassett said of the final. “That bodes well for next year because we have a lot of guys coming back and a really good Bantam group coming in.”
HTA, with a large amount of its core able to return next season, will look to follow a similar script from three years ago when its provincial silver medal in 2018 was bookended by a championship the ensuing season.
“We’re really excited to get the young guys in during the spring or even the off-season training,” Hassett said. “With so many guys returning there’s already lots of chatter in our team chat that next season starts on Monday, a few of them said that.
“They need to take a break, take some days off, and just recharge the batteries a bit and we’ll get started soon.”
