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Skyhawks soar over Ravens in provincial final

Langley's H.D. Stafford wins second straight tier 2 B.C. football championship
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The H.D. Stafford Skyhawks won the Grade 8 tier 2 football championship on Nov. 29 at Burnaby Lakes.

Nathan King scored three touchdowns as the H.D. Stafford Skyhawks captured the provincial football tier 2 championship.

The Skyhawks won 21-0 over Abbotsford's Eugene Reimer Ravens on Thursday (Nov. 29) at Burnaby Lakes.

This was the school's second straight tier 2 football title and they have appeared in the championship games three consecutive seasons.

"At the first practice of the year, I asked the question to the team 'who would like to be playing football at the end of November?'" said Stafford coach Kyle Anderson.

"The team answered with a resounding 'yes coach.'"

"Our goal at the start of each season is to put a product on the field that will make it into the provincial finals," he said.

Stafford went 4-2 during the regular season and then knocked off Pitt Meadows 20-6 in the semifinals.

The Ravens went 3-3 and upset the Abbotsford Huskies 16-6 in their playoff game. The top seed from the regular season, the G.W. Graham Grizzlies (5-1) moved to the tier 1 playoffs.

And in the championship game, King ran back the opening kick-off 70 yards for the touchdown before the teams settled into the defensive battle.

King added another touchdown on a long run to make it 14-0 in the third quarter, and then King completed the trifecta in the fourth quarter, this time from 50 yards out.

Eh Tha Ta converted all three touchdowns.

Kaeden Purdy capped off the shutout, picking off a Ravens pass in the final two minutes.

"The keys to the game for us were to control the line of scrimmage and win the trench war," Anderson said.

"To minimize our errors and capitalize on theirs, and to execute our game plan and dictate the pace of the game."

While Anderson fully expected to have a successful season, he was surprised by the pure speed of some of his athletes.

"We did not expect to be such a fast team and we used this to our advantage on special teams, with our offensive running and our entire defence.

“We beat teams with speed, full stop.”

Mario Bartel/Black Press

H.D. Stafford's Nathan King scored all three touchdowns in his team's 21-0 victory over the Reimer Ravens.