Like stepping stones, the Terry Fox Ravens senior football team is following a trail of goose eggs to Coquitlam’s Percy Perry Stadium Friday.
Those goose eggs belong to the St. Thomas More Knights and they represent the total number of points the Burnaby team has allowed in its four games so far this season.
Yes, you read that right; the Knights’ defence has yet to allow an opponent to cross their goal line or a kicker close enough to put a field goal through the uprights.
Like Ravens’ head coach Martin McDonnell says, that “doesn’t happen very often” in football.
But if any team has the qualifications to break that string of shutouts, it’s Fox. After all, the top-ranked high school team in the province has racked up 165 points in their four games, tops in the Eastern Conference along with Lord Tweedsmuir.
Talk about a clash of opposing forces.
“It’s a little daunting,” says McDonnell of his side’s date with defensive destiny. “We haven’t really had too much of a challenge, but I think it’s coming.”
And it will be wearing number 43.
That’s STM’s Tyler Eckert, a 6’1”, 210 lb bulldog as a defensive end on defence and running back on offence.
Eckert, a senior, is picking up right where he left off last year, when he scored eight touchdowns and rushed for 402 yards despite playing in only five games because of injury.
“He’s just a big, strong kid that’s difficult to bring down,” McDonnell says.
In fact, that could pretty much describe the entire Knights’ roster.
“They’re really fit guys,” McDonnell says. “They all look like multi-sport athletes. They just consistently work really hard through the game.”
So he made sure his squad has been working hard before the game, watching film of the Knights in action, paying attention to their coaches’ notes. It’s all about being prepared for the challenge, says McDonnell.
“I don’t think we’re going to have to be doing any super rah rah stuff,” he says. “Hopefully the kids believe us when we tell them it’s going to be a tough one.”
So far the Ravens have enjoyed a relatively easy schedule since they lost a tough exhibition game against Lynden, Wash. at the beginning of September. That’s allowed McDonnell to give ample playing time to his young players from Grade 10, spelling banged up juniors and seniors.
But that will likely change Friday.
It will be up to the Ravens’ dynamic battery of quarterback Jevaun Jacobsen and running back Jaden Severy to lead the charge through the seemingly impenetrable Knights’ defence. Jacobsen has thrown one touchdown pass and carried the ball himself 21 times for 214 yards. Severy has scored nine touchdowns and averaged 10.2 yards every time he’s handed the ball.
Knights’ coach Steve De Lazzari says his defenders are girded for the challenge.
“It’s going to take a colossal effort to stop those guys,” De Lazzari says. “It’s going to be important for us to play disciplined defence, for our defensive line to keep in their run lanes and to not allow those guys into open field.”
McDonnell says his charges are equally motivated to crack the Knights’ run of goose eggs.
“It’s going to be all hands on deck.”
Game time is 7 p.m.
—with files from Grant Granger
