Saskatoon ready to get it on with Huskies in PFC semifinal
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| Boston Davidsen finished second in the PFC in rushing yards. |
At practice this week, the Hilltops have been their traditional businesslike selves preparing for their Prairie Football Conference semifinal clash with the Edmonton Huskies. The two sides go at it in that CJFL playoff clash on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.
“It will be a challenge,” said Hilltops quarterback Damon Dutton. “They are definitely a good team.
“We just have to come out and compete and play our best game of the season on Sunday.”
The Hilltops finished second in the PFC regular season standings with a 6-2 mark, while the Huskies were third with a 5-3 record.
Saskatoon earned a bye to host a PFC semifinal thanks to the second place finish. The Huskies romped over the Calgary Colts 53-9 in a PFC quarter-final contest held this past Sunday at Jasper Place Bowl in Edmonton.
The two sides went at it twice during the regular season with the Hilltops pulling out wins on both occasions.
“You play a team three times you really get to know what they do with their tendencies,” said Hilltops outside linebacker Konner Johnson. “They are going to be the same for us.
“We watched a lot of film. We have a lot of film on them now of us playing them. We know what we have to get better at.”
On the opening day of the CJFL regular season back on August 22, the Hilltops rallied from a 14-0 deficit to slip past the Huskies 18-17 at Jasper Place Bowl. Hilltops punter Doug Fleming kicked a rouge on the last play of the game to win the contest.
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| Declan O’Flaherty (#4) topped the PFC in passing yards. |
Before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world helped cancel the 2020 CJFL campaign, the Hilltops and Huskies met the last two times the PFC final was contested. The Hilltops claimed both of those encounters pulling out a 30-14 win in 2019 and a 28-9 victory in 2018.
Legendary Hilltops head coach Tom Sargeant knows all that past success doesn’t guarantee any future success.
“They are a good football team,” said Sargeant, whose team has won four straight games. “They are well coached.
“They got skill levels at all positions. They are hungry. You got to remember this is a team we’ve faced in the PFC final for that couple of years.
“We have a history with them as well. It is going to be a big, physical clash, but we’re excited that we are playing at SMF.”
During the 2021 regular season, the Huskies had the highest scoring offence in the PFC scoring 334 points in eight games.
The Hilltops defence gave up the least amount of points in the PFC surrendering 135 points over eight contests.
On offence, Dutton became the Hilltops full-time starter in the team’s fourth game of the campaign. During the regular season, Dutton completed 127-of-183 passes for 1,528 yards and 12 touchdowns, while throwing six interceptions.
Dutton had the third most passing yards and touchdown passes in the PFC.
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| Damon Dutton (#19) finished third in the PFC in passing yards. |
He also rested for much of the Huskies quarter-final win over the Colts completing his only pass for nine yards and a touchdown.
On the ground, Hilltops running backs Boston Davidsen and Carter McLean finished second and third respectively in the PFC in rushing yards. Davidsen carried the 98 times for 634 yards and scored six touchdowns, while McLean had 125 carries for 599 yards and four touchdowns.
Huskies running back Alex Gayle carried the ball 149 times for 927 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. He topped the PFC in all three of those statistical categories.
Edmonton also has veteran Brandt Burzuk in the backfield at running back. In 2019, Burzuk was named the PFC’s most valuable player, most outstanding offensive player and most outstanding running back. He battle injuries for much of the 2021 season.
Receiver Ethan Godson led the Hilltops and was fourth in the PFC in receiving yards hauling in 30 catches for 524 yards and six touchdowns.
Pass catcher Adner St Hilaire topped the Huskies and finished second in the PFC in receiving yards catching 35 passes for 609 yards and three touchdowns.
During their wins over the Huskies, the Hilltops usually piled up huge yardage on the ground, which included 285 yards rushing in the 34-20 victory on Oct. 3. Dutton said his squad will keep going to the ground game until success doesn’t happen anymore.
“If our running game is working, that means we are doing our jobs,” said Dutton. “We’re confident that it can and it will work.
“We just have good confidence in our guys.”
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| Alex Gayle (#33) lead the PFC in rushing yards. |
Huskies defensive back Maurice Dubois finished ninth in the PFC in defensive points. He collected 32 defensive tackles, three defensive tackle assists, four special teams tackles, four pass knockdowns and two interceptions over eight regular season games.
Johnson said the Hilltops are going to try and neutralize the Huskies running game first to try and make their opponents one dimensional.
“That is the main goal, especially now it is getting colder out,” said Johnson. “Teams want to run as much as they can.
“I think that is what they are going to be focused on at the start. We have to shut that down. It should be a better game for us.”
Entering the post-season, the Hilltops have won the CJFL championship the last six times it was up for grabs from 2014 to 2019. That means they have an active 20-game CJFL record post-season game winning going into Sunday’s game too.
The last time the Hilltops didn’t make the PFC final when the CJFL playoffs were contested was way back in 2006. During that campaign, the Hilltops season came to an end with a 35-27 setback in a home PFC semifinal contest played at Griffiths Stadium against the Huskies.
Of course in the current campaign, there has been extra excitement for everything that happens in a season after the 2020 campaign was lost.
Sargeant believes his squad will be once again ready to rock ’n’ roll when it comes time to play this Sunday’s post-season game.
“We know what we need to do and how we need to do it,” said Sargeant. “We’re excited to have a great week of practice and focus on the task at hand.
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| Konner Johnson (#42) and the Hilltops defence are ready to rock. |
“The game plan is laid out. The players have to come out and execute that plan. If they do a good job of that, usually things work out pretty well for us.”
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