Bellerose Bulldogs Football

The undefeated Bellerose Bulldogs are leaving their mark on the high school football field.

The top team in the Carr division one standings moved up one notch to No. 3 in the Football Alberta Tier I (1,250-plus students) rankings after throttling the Ross Sheppard Thunderbirds 48-7 Friday at Foote Field.

“It’s been really good this year and a lot of fun. Hopefully we keep it going,” said Trace Stuht, the first Bulldog at practice Monday.

The 3-0 Bulldogs, who draw players from Sturgeon Composite High School, have never been ranked this high since the team’s formation following the break-up of the Bellerose-based St. Albert Storm, the first high school team in the city.

“It means a lot to us but at the same time our coaches have been telling us the rankings don’t matter. Coach O (Larry Olexiuk) has been preaching we’re 0-3. Last week we were 0-2,” Stuht said. “We just go out and play the game like the score is 0-0.”

Stuht, 17, credits head coach Chad Hill and his staff for prepping the Bulldogs as if every game was a final exam.

“We owe a lot to the coaches. A guy like coach O spends three hours just on the opponent’s film. He breaks down every single play that they have just so we can come out fully prepared,” said the Grade 12 Bulldog. “They’re also making sure we’re doing our job and working hard in practice. We’ve had some bad practices but we’re doing our best out here to make sure we’re ready for the game.”

The Bulldogs have been pit bulls defensively while averaging 15 points against per game. They have picked off five passes and sacked the quarterback five times.

Grade 12 linebacker Nick Cowan is having a monstrous season with 24 tackles and nine assists. Four players have also registered double-digit tackles.

Cowan was all over the field against Shep while registering eight tackles and 10 assists. In the second quarter, Cowan teamed up with Darryl Broderick to force a fumble and Cowan returned a fumble 60-yards to pay dirt. His conversion made it 20-7.

Cowan also blocked a punt deep in Shep’s end and Stuht recovered it within striking distance of the goal line. Grade 11 quarterback Morgan Sherban plunged in from the one before halftime. Cowan’s convert padded the lead to 34-7.

In the second half, Broderick pulled off his second interception in two games.

“Our defence has definitely been outstanding. The DBs have been doing pretty good. There have been a couple of big passes that we’ve let them complete like Reggie (Schoeppe) from Sal. He is a great quarterback but we had four interceptions against him (in the 29-10 win over Salisbury, the defending Carr champions),” said Stuht who has split time at safety and halfback. “Our run support has been really good too. It’s been like short runs and the interior guys have been tackling them before they get to us (in the secondary).”

Offensively, the Bulldogs have lit up the scoreboard with 13 TDs while averaging 35.6 points per win.

Tyler Feltis, an electrifying Grade 12 tailback, scored two of his team-leading five TDs on runs of 13 and 35 yards in the first half against Shep before sitting out the second half after racking up 98 yards on eight carries. His 379 yards on 40 handoffs is due in large part to an underrated but solid offensive line.

Sherban, a Grade 11 transfer student from Fort Saskatchewan, has been better than advertised since his arrival at Bellerose while completing 28 out of 38 passes for 349 yards and two TDs but no interceptions. He has also scrambled for 147 yards on 27 carries for a pair of majors.

In Friday’s win Sherban was 5-for-8 passing for 72 yards.

“Morgan's running helps a lot. When plays go awry like a bad snap or somebody misses a block and a guy comes in he is able to get outside the pocket and make something out of nothing. That’s what he’s really good at,” said Stuht, who shares quarterbacking duties with Sherban the same way they alternated behind centre for the Storm midget spring league team this year.

The tiny but talented Seth Waselenchuk is a gigantic two-way threat at slotback and cornerback. The Grade 12 Bulldog leads all Carr receivers with 14 catches for 184 yards, ranks third on the team in rushing yards with 136 on 10 carries and is tied with Sherban in TDs with two apiece. His second major was a 40-yard outside run in the first quarter against Shep. He added four catches for 55 yards in the blowout.

Waselenchuk also has one interception and 10 tackles in three games.

The only negative on the otherwise positive start for the Bulldogs is the rash of penalties that are turning Hill's blonde hair into grey.

“Penalties have been an issue for us,” Stuht admitted. “We have to fix that.”

Shep, a former Edmonton public league team, was lucky to lose only by 41 as the Bulldogs emptied the bench with the result a done deal. Walker Sinclair closed out the scoring with a nifty cutback for a 20-yard major.

“Our defence did really well and our offence obviously executed. Morgan had great runs and good passes,” said Stuht, who replaced Sherban in the second half and on a designed quarterback run galloped 43 yards into the endzone in the third quarter.

“The offence line did awesome when I was in at quarterback. It was great blocking. There was nobody within a 15-yard radius of me. It was an easy straight-line run to the touchdown so I owe that to them,” said Stuht, who was two-for-four passing for 23 yards, gained 53 yards on three runs and also recorded three tackles and six assists.

On tap for the Bulldogs are the Austin O’Brien Crusaders (2-1), the three-time reigning Tier II (750 to 1,249 students) Alberta Bowl champions. Thursday’s kick off is 6 p.m. at Riel Recreation Park and admission is $5.

“It’s going to be a tough game and we’re going to give it our all,” Stuht said of the No. 7-ranked Tier II Crusaders.

The 2013 metro Edmonton junior MVP in pool B as the Grade 11 quarterback for Bellerose joins Ethan Findlay, Shawn Campbell, James Lis, Mike Clapp, Alex Sutton, Dane Houlden, Kit Liske, Taylor Mar, Maverick Delmas, Jakob West and Justin Hoskins as Bulldogs who have not tasted defeat after winning consecutive junior division one championships with the 16-0 overall Dawgs before moving up to the senior team this year.

“Just to be able to go this far like that is great,” Stuht said. “To go all the way would be really nice.”

THIRD DOWN: The junior Dawgs play their first game of the season tonight against the St. Joseph Saints (2-0). Kickoff is 6 p.m. at Johnny Bright Park.

Last weekend at the Whitecourt jamboree, the Bulldogs defeated Sexsmith, Peace Wapiti and Whitecourt and lost to a St. Joseph lineup from Grande Prairie loaded with Grade 11 players.

Standouts included quarterback Jaedon Carroll, running back Colton Meronyk, and slotback D’Andre Plaizier, as well as Jacob Pasqual and Drew Morison up front on defence and Logan Moreau in the secondary.