The looks on their faces as they hoisted the championship banner and trophy said it all for the Mount Douglas Rams senior varsity football team.
The Subway Bowl honours, representing triple-A supremacy, were back in their clutches for the fourth time in five years after late Saturday night鈥檚 impressive 34-17 win over previously undefeated Vancouver College Fighting Irish.
Not only did it avenge a 20-0 regular-season loss, it earned back what the Rams believed was rightfully theirs - the sa国际传媒 title.
鈥淎 lot of these Grade 12s really deserved this game, they鈥檝e been working all year for this, so I did my best to give them this game,鈥� said Grade 9 quarterback Gideone Kremler, who wrote his own story this season, taking the Rams back to the promised land at the age of 14.
鈥淚 think I did good, but it was up to them. They put in the work - the offensive line, the defensive line, everyone put in the work and that鈥檚 what got us the win.鈥�
The Rams wanted to avenge last year鈥檚 championship loss to South Delta, which snapped three straight titles.
鈥淭he guys have been thinking about that loss and talking about it for a long time and they didn鈥檛 want to feel that again,鈥� said Kremler, who had plenty of help in this one from veterans.
鈥淥ur best players played their finest games on Saturday鈥檚 biggest stage,鈥� said head coach Mark Townsend. 鈥淕avin Cobb, Aidan Kachanoski, Declann Michielin, Gevhahn McNally-Hardisty, Justice Kremler, Trystin Waters, Ollie Mackenzie, Manny Lopez, and on and on.
鈥淭his was a gutsy performance by all our players. They fought through adversity this week, including some injuries, but in the end they left everything they had on the field and were rewarded for their heart and fortitude.鈥�
McNally-Hardisty started it with a recovery on an onside kick on the very first play of the game. Errors cropped up for both sides early, but it was the Rams who settled down quickly after Kremler replaced Cobb, who took snaps at quarterback for the first series.
Kremler tossed touchdown passes to Griffin Posynick and MacKenzie in the first half and Michielin 鈥� hobbled last week in the semifinals and a doubtful starter 鈥� ran for another from six yards out as the Rams built up a 21-17 lead on the Irish at the half.
McNally-Hardisty then made a circus catch, bobbling the ball while toeing the sideline and falling just over the end zone on an early third-quarter score on a pass from Kremler to make it 28-17 Mount Douglas.
McNally-Hardisty, MacKenzie and Cobb (the game鈥檚 MVP) all made sensational catches, Michielin ran for 134 yards and Kremler amassed nearly 200 yards in passing.
Older brother Justice Kremler made a key interception with eight minutes to go for Mount Douglas and Michielin punched in his second score from two yards out as the victors ran off 20 straight points from just prior to the halftime break onward.
Earlier in the day, Gideone Kremler threw for four touchdown passes 鈥� three to Connor Clarke and one to Dante Carbone 鈥� and ran for more than 100 yards in the junior varsity team鈥檚 48-29 loss to the New Westminster Hyacks in the junior varsity championship.
Kremler was not the only member of the JV Rams team to play in both championships as Jake Ounsted, Soren Hallschmid, Mateo Hallschmid, Isaiah Cardilicchia, Ben Pierik and Phil Grohovac were all asked to suit up in the senior outing.
