After taking a tough two-game pounding from top-notch American competition, the Centennial Centaurs are ready now to rattle some Canadian cages.
The highly regarded B.C. AAA senior high school football squad is hungry to chomp first into the Ballenas Whalers of Parksville in an exhibition tilt Saturday at Percy Perry Stadium, 1 p.m.
The game is the back-end of a weekend prep doubleheader at the Town Centre Park venue, where the Terry Fox Ravens tangle with the Kelowna Owls tonight (Friday), 7 p.m.
The Cents are coming off a pair of lopsided losses in Washington -- 62-19 to Lynden and 34-0 to East Catholic -- that left them bruised but not battered. In fact, Cents head coach Ryk Piche expects to field a near-complete line-up versus the Whalers, whom he considers a formidable AA opponent. The Cents were slated to play another Washington school, Tumwater, the following week but Piche elected to nix that tilt to save his players from injury heading into the regular season.
On a bright note, the Cents racked up 300 total offensive yards -- more than 200 along the ground -- despite being shutout by Sammamish's East Catholic Crusaders.
"There's nothing like playing the best competition," Piche said of his team's turbulent test across the border. "It was a great experience for our boys. We played two of the very best teams within five or six hours from here, now we're ready to play our own kind."
The Cents own a senior-laden line-up, led primarily by running back Jason Buren, quarterback Cole Milton, centre Jeremy Lauten, middle linebacker Michael Spencer and lineman Michael Couture -- most of whom played with the team since Grade 10.
"We expose our players at a young age to senior football so it's not a big deal when they get here [to Grade 12]... they've already played two or three years with us," Piche said. "I'm very confident where we are right now. To me, rankings mean nothing. Progressing is what's key and we're doing that."
END ZONE: The Centaurs were ranked No. 4 at the start of the season on B.C. high school football's website, behind No. 1 Vancouver College, No. 2 W.J. Mouat and No. 3 Mt. Douglas (Victoria). The St. Thomas More Knights sat No. 5, with Terry Fox and Carson Graham making honourable mentions... Centennial opens Eastern Conference league play Oct. 7 when they visit Cloverdale's Lord Tweedsmuir, while Fox hosts South Surrey's Earl Marriott that same day.
