Bellerose Bulldogs Football

This just in: the Bellerose Bulldogs are the real deal.

Thursday’s 29-10 shocker against the Salisbury Sabres, last year’s Carr division one champions, is stop-the-presses material in metro Edmonton high school football.

“This is huge. It just shows we can beat anyone,” declared Seth Waselenchuk, a scintillating Grade 12 slotback and cornerback, after the Bulldogs beat the No. 4-ranked Tier I (1,250-plus students) team in Alberta. “We’re on a high right now. We’re definitely on a roll. We’ve got the momentum and it feels good to have it and I don’t see why we’ll slow down.”

It was payback time after Salisbury shut out the Bulldogs last year 21-0 in the league opener and 14-0 in the Carr semifinals.

“We wanted to show them that we’re not out here to get beat,” said Ben Bochar, an intimidating six-foot-three, 295-pound Grade 12 nosetackle. “We want everyone to know that we’re here to play. We’re practicing hard and playing hard.”

The Bulldogs, listed ninth in Tier I as the fourth-highest Carr team in the rankings, are 2-0 after compiling a respectable 4-5 record last year.

“Last year at this point we were 0-2 so this year at 2-0 it feels real good. It’s a confidence booster,” Bochar said.

Every game is big in the ultra-competitive Carr circuit but Thursday’s showdown had a playoff buzz surrounding it.

“It was definitely a huge game. They’ve got some good football players but we played them like anybody else,” Waselenchuk said. “Even though they were missing a couple of guys it feels really good to beat them.”

Head coach Chad Hill wasn’t ready to declare it the Year of the Bulldogs in his post-game address after Bellerose picked off four passes and recovered a fumble but a slew of penalties and some surprising snafus on both sides of the ball allowed last year’s Tier I north finalists to stay in the game.

“I’m really, really proud of you guys. These guys are the defending champs. You guys deserve to enjoy this one tonight but we’ve got to clean stuff up and tomorrow at film we’re going to learn from our mistakes because there were mistakes. This is a good football team we played but we held them in the game too long from our own mistakes,” Hill stressed. “We’re going to get better. We’re going to be able to run the ball against anybody and there will be none of this getting shut down for three or four fifths of a game. We’ve got to be able to run that football.

“Defence, I will say this; we had some miscues, some mistakes and we bent but I haven’t seen four interceptions (in a game) since coach (Ryan) Moulds played.”

After outscoring Salisbury 15-10 in the first half the Bulldogs buckled down to stop the Sabres in their tracks.

“We came out really strong after halftime and our defence did a really good job to not give them any points and that kept us rolling,” Bochar said. “We weren’t expecting a blowout, we were expecting a tight game but our coaches scouted a lot and they gave us a good idea what to watch for. The coaches put in a lot of work and it really showed on the field.”

Front-runners

The hungry Bulldogs drew first blood on Trace Stuht’s one-yard touchdown plunge after Waselenchuk and linebacker Nick Cowan forced the Sabres to fumble out of bounds at the Salisbury 30 on the first offensive series. Waselenchuk’s 21-yard scamper on third down put the Bulldogs at the one.

Late in the first quarter Mike Woywitka recovered a fumble at the Bellerose 31 after Salisbury quarterback Reggie Schoeppe was sacked in shotgun formation.

The Bulldogs converted the turnover into a time-consuming drive, culminating in Ben Hoffman’s juggling act in the endzone for a 12-yard TD reception from quarterback Morgan Sherban with 8:18 left until halftime.

Runs by explosive tailback Tyler Feltis and Sherban’s scrambling abilities kept the Bulldogs marching. Sherban also hit Tristan Hayes down the middle for a key first down and Waselenchuk also slipped through the defence to move the chains on the play before Hoffman’s TD.

Salisbury countered with a one-yard TD run to complete a 77-yard drive and later split the uprights from the 28 to trail by four with 1:55 remaining.

After a two-and-out by the Bulldogs, and Salisbury at its 35, on first down Sherban pulled off a spectacular leaping interception and after his lengthy return the Sabres were flagged on the horsecollar tackle and the ball was moved to the one. However, the Bulldogs were forced to settle for a 16-yard field goal attempt by Cowan that missed the mark but the single point put the Bulldogs up 15-10 at the break.

In the third quarter Darryl Broderick, the Paul Kane junior team’s MVP last year who also excels at basketball, picked off a pass at the Salisbury 32. On first down Sherban fired a bullet for Waselenchuk to catch with his back towards the goal posts before spinning around and with a defender on his back trotted over the goal line with 2:51 to go before quarter time.

Salisbury spent most of the fourth quarter in Bellerose territory but a stout defence and interceptions by Waselenchuk and Mitch Kruk left the Sabres spinning their wheels.

“We had really good scouting (reports) by our coaches and they showed us what we needed to know for coverage and we were able to shut down their receivers pretty well,” Waselenchuk said. “Our linebackers were coming up playing the run really well too.”

“Our defence was tackling better than they ever have,” added Bochar, 17.

Kruk’s pick at the Bellerose 17 set the stage for Feltis to bust loose and when he was tackled the ball popped loose and Hoffman recovered it at the three. Two plays later Feltis jogged in from the two with 51 seconds on the clock.

Cowan’s fourth convert of the night closed out the scoring.

“When Feltis broke off that huge run that was really huge for us because they were keeping it close at the end,” Waselenchuk said.

Salisbury (1-1) focused all their energies on stopping Feltis after the Grade 12 Bulldog racked up 181 yards on 20 carries for two TDs in last week’s 30-28 win over the Jasper Place Rebels (1-1).

“They were really loading the box and with Feltis you know you’ve got have to watch him so we tried to pass. Our O-line was playing well, our receivers were getting open and our quarterback was throwing the ball so it was working good,” said Waselenchuk, 17.

The Bulldogs huddle up Friday against the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds (0-1-1) at 7:30 p.m. at Foote Field.