Bellerose Bulldogs Football

Clarke Park – The tradition of excellence continues for the Bellerose Bulldogs.

Thursday’s 56-0 rout of the Jasper Place Rebels in the metro Edmonton division one final completed the third straight undefeated championship season for the junior football team at Bellerose Composite High School.

“It’s a pretty special moment for the junior program,” said a satisfied-looking head coach Chad Hill while dripping wet from the post-game Gatorade shower by the players.

“Years ago when I started coaching (the 2005 Bulldogs in the return of the junior program at Bellerose) if somebody would’ve told me that you’re going to go three seasons and win every game I wouldn’t have believed it. I know there have been some teams that have won three years in a row but I’m not sure they’ve gone undefeated like we did,” Hill acknowledged.

“This year as well as last year we’ve won by really outperforming the other teams so I give credit to our kids and I also have to give credit to the coaching staff that have done a good job of getting these guys ready. Back in August a lot of the coaches were scratching their heads and saying it might be a tough year for us but the kids worked really hard and prepared and executed on game day and that’s all we can ask of them. They made all of us very proud tonight.”

Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team picture.

The Bulldogs celebrated their seventh win of the season and third shutout like rock stars.

“It’s out of this world exciting. We’re just crazy happy,” said a grinning Terrell Peters, a Grade 11 Bulldog, while standing outside a locker room littered with confetti and drenched with non-alcoholic beverages. “Getting ramped up like this after winning a championship feels incredible, especially going undefeated the whole year again.”

The Bulldogs refused to blink in the glare of the spotlight as the reigning champs.

“There was no pressure. We were just a brand new team on the hunt to try to win another championship,” said Zach Nuttall, a Grade 11 tailback sensation who ripped the Rebels (6-1) for 240 yards on 23 carries and four touchdowns. “It feels excellent to be a champion.”

Peters agreed. “Our mindset throughout this season was we’re not defending anything. It’s a whole new unit with new Grade 10s and some players back from last year’s championship. We just looked at it that we’re going to go win the championship for ourselves,” said the Sturgeon Composite High School student.

The 24th consecutive victory for the juniors in league and playoffs combined since losing the 2011 semifinal to Bev Facey was a done deal after three quarters and the Bulldogs in front by 35 points.

“We never took the foot off the pedal,” Nuttall said. “Our defence really did everything for us and our offence has been stellar all year and it showed again tonight.”

Nuttall, 16, did most of the heavy lifting while equaling his TD total in the 62-14 drubbing of Facey in the semifinals when the first-year football player racked up 231 yards on only nine handoffs.

In the final Nuttall opened the scoring on the first play of the second quarter from the five. Peters’ fumble recovery at the Jasper Place 50 with 26 seconds left in the first quarter put the wheels in motion for the Bulldogs to capitalize on the turnover during their second offensive series.

Nuttall’s second TD was a 10-yard effort late in the first half after Chase Larose’s interception gave the Bulldogs the ball at their 18. Jaedon Carroll’s convert made it 21-0.

The third major by the former St. Albert rep hockey player was from the six with 2:38 left in the third quarter. After the handoff he dropped the ball but quickly picked it before reaching the endzone with a couple of strides.

Nuttall’s fourth TD was a 20-yard dash two minutes into the fourth quarter and Carroll’s convert left the Rebels trailing by 42.

“It’s pretty thrilling to do what I did in this game but I can’t put everything on me. It’s all because of the blocking. I just run with the ball,” said Nuttall, who finished the season with 14 TDs and 1,146 yards on 88 carries. “Everything we do is a team thing. Everybody did their job tonight and when you look at the scoreboard that’s what happened.”

Hill expects Nuttall will not miss a beat on the senior Bulldogs next year.

“We’re going to ask him to step into a prominent role on the offence at the senior level and he looks like he is ready to do that. He’s shown improvement throughout the entire year and he is a force to be reckoned with out there,” Hill said.

In the second quarter a string of runs by Nuttall on a drive that started from the Bellerose 54 paved the way for Matt Olesen’s 15-yard TD.

Carroll, a Grade 11 quarterback, galloped 56 yards in the last minute of the third quarter for the team’s fifth TD and his team-leading 15th. The Bulldogs’ nominee for the Grant Yuzyk Trophy as the most valuable player in pool B recorded 119 yards on 11 carries against the Rebels to finish with 569 overall on 54 attempts in his first season running the offence. He also converted all eight TDs in the final.

“We came back from our California trip and we didn’t have a junior quarterback so we asked Jaedon to go back down to the junior team and try the quarterback position and he excelled and he exceeded all of our expectations,” Hill said.

In the fourth quarter Peters returned an interception near the Jasper Place 30 into the endzone and Avery Lund added a two-yard score.

Peters’ pick off a deflection by a teammate was similar to his interception in last year’s 21-17 thriller against the Rebels in the final.

“It was redemption from last year from that play where I had an interception. It would’ve been a pick-six but it was called back because of a penalty,” said Peters, 16, a halfback who has filled in at defensive end, outside linebacker and safety and is also the punter, backup quarterback and one of the team’s kick and punt returners.

While the offence lit the Rebels up like a Christmas tree it was the defence that gift-wrapped the victory.

“Nobody has shut down their double wing offence and tonight our team did and that doesn’t just happen. It’s preparation. The players worked for it and they went out and executed,” Hill said. “Sometimes people just see the scoreboard and think things come easy but the players put in the hours and it makes it all worth it on a night like tonight.”