For the second time in four years, the Vancouver College Fighting Irish lost the AAA B.C. high school football championship to the Mt. Douglas Rams. And Mt. Doug, those indomitable Rams from Victoria, they claimed their fourth title in five years under head coach Mark Townsend.
On Saturday night at B.C. Place Stadium in a “wacky” title match with uneven halves, the Rams took and lost the lead before they finally doubled the Fighting Irish 34-17.
“It’s tough. We thought we had a good shot,” said Vancouver College linebacker Chris Ellis, named B.C.’s best player in his position at the AAA level this year.
“It’s never easy to lose in a championship game, but I just have to give a shout out to all the guys on this team. We really believed in ourselves and I think that’s the message of this team -- it’s belief. We went further than other people expected us to and we made our school and our alumni proud.”
The Fighting Irish defeated the Rams 20-0 on Oct. 31, but five weeks later the results changed.
“Quite simply, we had a bad night and that happens sometimes,” said Vancouver College head coach Todd Bernett.
“We worked all year to get to this moment. It was a very unusual first half, with wacky plays and circumstances and we didn’t recover from that, mentally, as well,” he said.
The Rams jumped to an 8-0 lead on their second possession after they recovered the ball on the Irish 28 yard-line on what otherwise would have been a predictable punt return. VC’s defensive line forced Mt. Doug’s quarterback, Gavin Cobb (who shared the role with Grade 9 pivot Gideone Kremler) back for fourth-and-32 on their own 28 yard line. The Rams punted the ball, and the high-soaring kick slipped overhead through the hands of the runner at the other end of the field. The live ball was smothered by Cobb, the same player who’d been sacked two plays earlier. Three plays later, they scored and converted an extra two.
Vancouver College took nine plays to score on a 68-yard drive. Running back Jasper Schiedel rushed 21 yards to the end zone. The Irish sat two points back at 8-6 when they forced Cobb to fumble, again on a punt return. Starting 27 yards out, they couldn’t bust through the Rams defence for a major but took a 9-8 lead on a field goal off the foot of Kieran Mitha.
In the second quarter, the lead twice changed hands as the Rams gained a crucial first down on an unpopular pass interference penalty and then rushed to a 14-9 advantage. They missed the extra two points.
In one of the most dramatic plays of the half, the Irish won back the ball as Aidan Fay blocked a punt and then found the ball in his hands as he crashed down on the one-yard line. They scored on another unpopular call as quarterback Samuels snuck toward the end zone and as the ball popped loose in an apparent fumble, the refs raised their arms to signal a touchdown. Irish had a one-point lead and expanded that to 17-14 as Samuels threw for an added two.
On the next Mt. Doug drive, Fay had two sacks but the Rams closed the half with a 27-yard pass to lead 21-17. They’d score again and again while holding the Fighting Irish scoreless in the second half.
“I thought we’d go in at half-time and catch our breath, so to speak, and come out and be more optimistic but we couldn’t find hope,” said Bernett. “We couldn’t move the ball. They came out and they executed well and we didn’t. Quite simply, they just played better. Even when we had an opportunity to climb back in it, again they held us to a three-and-out and at that point we were probably asking too much with the time we had left.”
In the loss, Vancouver College managed 180 offensive yards, a much smaller output than the 383 yards they averaged over 12 exhibition, regular season and playoff games. They went 5-0 during league play before making the post-season.
Ellis led the team as he has almost every game this season with 11 tackles and he blocked a punt for good measure. Fay, Brendan Shandra and Athan Mellios each had eight tackles. Samuels threw for 105 yards, and Regan Oey took in four passes for 36 yards, including a two-point covert reception.
Vancouver College has played for the provincial championship at least once every decade since 1966 when there was a game worthy of the name. It’s an impressive streak that does not match the win-loss record, which is now 3-18. They lost in 2012 to the Rams, who won their second of three consecutive titles that year. Vancouver College won the B.C. title in 2010.
“It’s 12 months of work, culminating now and we can’t be disappointed because just being here means being a champion,” said Vancouver College defensive coordinator Doug Pauls, a VC alum and former SFU teammate of Rams coach Mark Townsend.
“I think back to my high school career and I got to quarters and semis and to be able to say I got to a championship game [as a coach] is a huge accomplishment. We did it with a whole bunch of guys who really shouldn’t be here — pretty average kids who work very, very hard and overachieve. I’m very proud of each and every one of them.”
