The Notre Dame Jugglers first junior varsity provincial football title in almost 20 years will have to wait at least one more season.
The East Vancouver/Burnaby regional school struggled stopping the big-play offence of the Terry Fox Ravens and came away on the losing end of a 34-14 scoreline at B.C. Place Stadium on Saturday.
Notre Dame’s last appearance in a JV provincial final was back in 1997, when the Jugglers defeated the St. Thomas More Knights 14-8 to win its sixth-ever B.C. title.
But without team leader Steven Moretto, injured in Notre Dame’s 28-14 semifinal win over Mt. Boucherie, in the lineup the Jugglers lacked a big-play threat of their own against Fox.
The Ravens, who avenged their only loss of the season to Vancouver College with a 21-14 win over the Fighting Irish in the other earlier semifinal, got multi-touchdown games from outstanding back Zander Bailey and MVP Jeremy Kankolongo to seize Terry Fox’s fourth provincial JV title in eight seasons and second since 2012.
Bailey opened the scoring for the Ravens on a 57-yard run from scrimmage on the team’s first possession.
Kankolongo went off tackle for 50 yards on the first play of Fox’s second possession to make the score 13-0 before the first quarter was even half over.
Kankolongo broke another 50-plus-yard gallop that set up Bailey’s second TD of the game to start the second quarter.
Notre Dame wide receiver Brennan Vu had a 33-yard touchdown reception called back later in the quarter and Mauro Giammaria got the first of two passes picked off in the game before Vu finally got himself into the end zone on a four-yard strike just before the interval.
Trailing by just two scores, Notre Dame needed some stops in the second half but didn’t get enough.
Although Kankolongo had a big gainer called back on a holding penalty to start the third quarter, the 5-11, 190-pound Ravens’ running back wasn’t to be stopped, scoring from 34 and two yards out later in the quarter to put the game out of reach of the Jugglers.
Notre Dame ended the third quarter with a score of their own on Matthew Manetta’s 44-yard pass and run TD.
The loss was the second of the season to Terry Fox for Notre Dame. The Ravens defeated the Jugglers 26-8 in early season exhibition. Notre Dame also lost an exhibition matchup to New Westminster.
Notre Dame’s outstanding lineman of the game Mario Marra, who grew up a stone’s throw from Terry Fox, said missing Moretto in the final game was tough.
“It was, but football is the ultimate team sport. Today (Terry Fox) was the better team,” said Marra, who played on Notre Dame’s Grade 8 champion team in 2012. “There is always next season.”
But in order to achieve a provincial football title at the AAA varsity level, Notre Dame would have to go even farther back to 1993, when then B.C. high school male athlete of the year and championship game MVP running back David Mattiazzo led the Jugglers to their last banner – a 34-20 victory over Vancouver College.
