North beats South 24 to 17 in Alberta Senior Bowl

The tone was set with the opening kickoff, indicating it would not be a typical high school football game.

The North All-stars attempted an onside kick, looking to wrestle the initiative from their southern counterparts.

It didn’t work, but it was far from the last piece of trickery attempted Monday afternoon at Foote Field as the North defeated the South 24-17 in 21st annual Football Alberta Senior Bowl.

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“Chris Friskie (assistant coach) has been at this game three times and has been on the winning side three times, so I made him the special teams co-ordinator and just let him go,” said North head coach Dave McKinnon. “I thought it was close. It went seven yards. We just needed it to go a little deeper. It was there, we just didn’t execute it.”

The South took advantage of the generous field position, running a reverse on their first play from scrimmage that set up the game’s opening touchdown.

Quarterback Brad Karl hit slotback Adam Osterling over the top with a 10-year touchdown pass. A 27-yard field goal from Steven McCaffrey before the end of the first quarter gave the South a 10-0 lead.

It stayed that way until the North faked a field goal on the first play of the second quarter, running a sleeper play.

Quarterback Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren, doubling as the holder, took the snap and found Mallan Roberts unattended along the sideline.

The receiver out of M.E. LaZerte in Edmonton, weaved his way through a couple of arm tackles and made it into the end zone for a 22-yard score.

“We had practised that on the weekend, so we had it in the playbook,” McKinnon said. “Again, that was Friskie. He didn’t tell me he was going to do it, but they were talking about it on the headset and he just told me that I’ll want to watch this. It was awesome. But that was Chris’ call.

“When you have such a good coaching staff, you have to let them go and do their thing.”

Another failed on-side kick attempt gave the South good field position again.

However, they were unable to make the most of it, which turned out to be a theme of the contest as the North struggled with their punting game.

The teams went into the halftime break tied 10-10 after the North hit a 27-yard field goal.

“The wind got stronger than we though it was, we got into good positions, but we just couldn’t finish it off,” said South head coach Dennis Hollowaychuk. “They sent a lot heat on us and we couldn’t contain it very well. A lot of times, we had to throw off our back foot, which hurt us.”

In the second half, the North continued to take chances.

Despite being in field goal range, they decided to go for it on third down from six yards out. Gilbert-Knorren rolled out and hit linebacker Keaton Hoddinott with a touchdown pass.

“The goal-line gambles were in the gameplan,” McKinnon said. “You’re playing with a bunch of great athletes and you know they’re going to want to tee off on you, so you know there is a chance that they’re going to over-pursue or be over-aggressive.

“If we went with our jumbo package, that was the play we were going to run right away. Jahlani is such a threat to run, and while Keaton plays linebacker for us, he plays fullback for his high school team. He said he could catch and when we tried it in practice, it worked, so we decided to go with it.”

In the fourth quarter the North went for it again on a third and goal situation as Gilbert-Knorren rolled in from a yard out.

The South pulled within a touchdown as Karl hit Braden Heffernan in the back of the end zone from nine yards out.

It was as close as they would come, however, as a Tyler LaGrange picked off Karl late in the contest to seal the victory and tie the all-time series 10-10-1.

“The guys came together with good chemistry,” McKinnon said. “They just seem to bond really quickly and were able to come together as a team.”

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PHOTO
The North All Stars Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren of Harry Ainlay talks some trash to South All Stars Steven McCaffrey of Henry Wise Wood during the 2010 Football Alberta senior bowl in Edmonton, Alberta at Foote Field on May 24, 2010. The North was victorious. (JORDAN VERLAGE/EDMONTON SUN)