CFC50 Rankings Week 4: Surprising results in Saskatchewan and Alberta shuffle the rankings

Programs across the country continue to jockey for positions as a clearer picture emerges of the top ranked high schools in Canada.

Huron Heights traveled to Sault Ste. Marie for another barnburner against the Korah Colts, and if not for a last minute blocked field goal we’d be having a very different discussion this week. The Colts didn’t back down in a hard-fought defensive battle that ended 14-13, and proved Northern Ontario belongs in the same conversation as the best programs in the province. Despite the final score, there was still plenty of offence with the Warriors’ quarterback Ethan Schwartz completing 6/8 passes for 151 yards and a highlight touchdown to Alex Figen, while Colts’ running back Jesse Burella ran for 151 yards on 20 carries. There’s no rest for the Warriors who will once again travel to Sault Ste. Marie this week to take on St. Mary’s, while Korah will be taking their experience with them the rest of the season as they search for their fourth straight OFSAA banner.

We had a ton of action across Ontario for the first time this year with plenty of leagues kicking off their regular season schedules. The marque matchup to watch was in London between Laurier and South, with the Rams jumping out to a 27-0 lead and holding off the Lions fourth quarter surge to come away on top 27-14. The rest of our ranked programs had little resistance in their week one matchups with St. Roch, Holy Trinity (Oakville), Jacob Hespeler, Cardinal Newman, Frontenac, St. Mark, St. James, Corpus Christi, Westmount, A.N. Myer and St. Joan of Arc all maintaining the status quo. We also see the appearance of two new programs from Ontario making the list with St. Andrew’s College off to an impressive start with a massive 51-0 victory over Trinity College, and they also defeated St. Mary’s out of New York in preseason action 38-9, who were the same program Huron Heights defeated 21-13 earlier in the year. Luckily, we will get the chance to see who the better team is later down the road with St. Andrew’s College set to battle Huron Heights on October 6th. The other team jumping on the radar is St. Patrick’s out of Thunder Bay, who are off to a 2-0 start after defeating perennial contenders St. Ignatius in a tight 23-20 contest. Lastly we will have to wait a little longer to settle the score between Nelson and Oakville Trafalgar with the game being postponed until October.

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The big story out of Alberta was Raymond proving a point against Lethbridge. The Rams came into the game as the higher ranked program, but they couldn’t find a way to cope with the Comets running away with a 50-0 victory. Lethbridge will be looking to flip the narrative later in the year when they get a chance for revenge against Raymond on November 3rd. The rest of our ranked programs in Alberta were able to stabilize the rankings with Harry Ainlay, Salisbury, and Notre Dame all winning by 30+ points in their week four games, while we are still waiting for a report out of Ernest Manning in their matchup against Henry Wise Wood.

We had another shocking result in Saskatchewan as Riffel took full advantage of their opportunity against Leboldus. It’s not surprising that the Royals came out on top because we had a feeling they could be the second best team in Regina this year, but nobody saw the Suns falling 42-7, and this now sets up a juicy matchup between defending champions Miller and Riffel this week with a potential top ten reshuffle incoming. Across the province the top two contenders in Saskatoon took care of business as usual with Holy Cross defeating Prince Albert St. Mary by a score of 45-0, and St. Joseph showing no mercy with a 60-13 victory over Bethlehem.

One of the biggest matchups of the week came in Manitoba where St. Paul’s and Dakota both entered with undefeated records and first place in the DI Potter Conference on the line. The game lived up to the hype with neither team blinking in the face of pressure, but St. Paul’s were able to hang on for the key 23-20 victory. By the looks of things, this will be the provincial final in Winnipeg, but don’t count out Grant Park, who played both teams tough in their first two games of the season, and were finally able to chalk up a W with their 23-14 victory over Oak Park last week. If there’s one thing we know about Winnipeg, you can always expect the unexpected come playoff time so make sure you stay tuned for all the drama.

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Moving onto Quebec, it’s starting to look like we will have a new champion in the province with Charles-Lemoyne asserting their dominance over the defending champs College Notre-Dame in a breezy 31-0 victory. Their main contender this season should be Seminaire Saint-Francois, who continued to dominate their competition with a 41-0 shutout victory against Cure-Antoine-Labelle. The Blizzard have only allowed 15 points through four games, and all eyes will be on their October 15th matchup against Charles-Lemoyne to decide who truly is the team to beat this year. In other action Saint-Jean-Eudes defeated College de Levis by a score of 21-7 to improve their record to 2-2 with both losses coming to our top ten programs, while Academie Saint-Louis had no issues in their 29-7 victory over Triolet.

We’ve finally gotten through the grueling preseason schedule in BC and are ready for the real competition to commence on the West Coast, but there is a new pecking order heading into the regular season after Vancouver College announced their intentions with a 35-0 blanking against Mt. Douglas. They will be looking to chase down the reigning champions G.W. Graham, who finished off their preseason schedule a perfect 4-0 with a 38-13 win against St. Thomas More. It appears the other program to watch this season will be Notre Dame, who also finished off a flawless exhibition schedule with their 31-7 victory over South Kamloops. We can’t wait to get the party started with a full slate of regular season action this week in BC.

Lastly, we hope everyone on the East Coast is safe after having to cancel their competition this week due to Hurricane Fiona.

#	Last Week	School/Team Mascot	City	Prov.	Conf. Rec.	Non-Conf. Rec	Week 4
1	1	Huron Heights Warriors	Newmarket	ON	0-0	3-0	W 14-13 vs. Korah
2	2	Miller Marauders	Regina	SK	3-0	0-0	W 45-0 vs. Campbell
3	3	St. Thomas More Knights	Hamilton	ON	1-0	0-1	BYE
4	4	Harry Ainlay Titans	Edmonton	AB	2-0	2-0	W 59-21 vs. Spruce Grove
5	5	G.W. Graham Grizzlies	Chilliwack	BC	0-0	4-0	W 38-13 vs. St. Thomas More
6	6	Sém. St-François Blizzard	Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaure	QC	4-0	0-0	W 41-0 vs. Cure-Antoine-Labelle
7	7	Catholic Central Crusaders	London	ON	0-0	2-0	BYE
8	8	Salisbury Sabres	Sherwood Park	AB	3-0	1-0	W 49-6 vs. Bellerose
9	9	Charles-Lemoyne Dynamique	Sainte-Catherine	QC	4-0	0-0	W 31-0 vs. College Notre-Dame
10	11	St. Paul’s Crusaders	Winnipeg	MB	3-0	0-0	W 23-20 vs. Dakota
11	10	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	Welland	ON	0-0	1-1	BYE
12	14	Korah Colts	Sault Ste Marie	ON	2-0	0-1	L 14-13 vs. Huron Heights
13	19	Vancouver College Fighting Irish	Vancouver	BC	0-0	3-0	W 35-0 vs. Mt. Douglas
14	13	Notre Dame Pride	Calgary	AB	1-0	1-1	W 49-7 vs. All Saints
15	12	St. Roch Ravens	Brampton	ON	1-0	1-0	W 21-0 vs. Lorne Park
16	15	St. Francis Browns	Calgary	AB	1-0	0-1	BYE
17	16	Holy Cross Crusaders	Saskatoon	SK	2-0	0-1	W 45-0 vs. Prince Albert St. Mary
18	18	Notre Dame Jugglers	Burnaby	BC	0-0	3-0	W 31-7 vs. South Kamloops
19	26	Raymond Comets	Raymond	AB	0-0	2-1–1	W 50-0 vs. LCI
20	17	Holy Trinity Titans	Oakville	ON	2-0	0-0	W 17-0 vs. St. Ignatius of Loyola
21	24	Laurier Rams	London	ON	1-0	0-0	W 27-14 vs. South
22	42	Riffel Royals	Regina	SK	3-0	0-0	W 42-7 vs. Leboldus
23	21	Dakota Collegiate Lancers	Winnipeg	MB	2-1	0-0	L 23-20 vs. St. Paul’s
24	27	Ernest Manning Griffins	Calgary	AB	1-0	2-0-1	W 42-2 vs. Henry Wise Wood
25	28	Saint-Jean-Eudes Condors	Québec	QC	2-2	0-0	W 21-7 vs. College de Levis
26	31	St Joseph Guardians	Saskatoon	SK	2-1	0-1	W 60-13 vs. Bethlehem
27	32	Auburn Drive Eagles	Westphal	NS	2-0	0-0	BYE
28	33	Saint John Greyhounds	Saint John	NB	2-0	0-0	W 42-0 vs. Fredricton
29	34	Jacob Hespeler Hawks	Cambridge	ON	1-0	0-0	W 51-0 vs. Preston
30	39	Cardinal Newman Cardinals	Stoney Creek	ON	1-0	0-0	W 61-0 vs. St. Mary’s
31	36	Frontenac Falcons	Kingston	ON	1-0	0-0	W 56-0 vs. Ernestown
32	20	Mount Douglas Rams	Victoria	BC	0-0	2-1	L 35-0 vs. Vancouver College
33	22	Terry Fox Ravens	Port Coquitlam	BC	0-0	2-1	BYE
34	37	St. Mark Lions	Ottawa	ON	1-0	0-0	W 35-6 vs. Arnprior
35	38	St. James Lions	Guelph	ON	1-0	0-0	W 27-2 vs. John F. Ross
36	43	Corpus Christi Longhorns	Burlington	ON	2-0	0-0	W 35-9 vs. Bishop Reding
37	35	Westmount Wildcats	Hamilton	ON	1-0	0-0	W 28-6 vs. Sir Winston Churchill
38	UR	St. Andrew’s College Saints	Aurora	ON	1-0	1-1	W 51-0 vs. Trinity College
39	29	Academie Saint-Louis Arsenal	Quebec	QC	3-1	0-0	W 29-7 vs. Triolet
40	30	College Notre-Dame Cactus	Montreal	QC	2-2	0-0	L 31-0 vs. Charles-Lemoyne
41	23	L.C.I. Rams	Lethbridge	AB	1-0	2-1	L 50-0 vs. Raymond
42	41	Oakville Trafalgar	Oakville	ON	0-0	0-0	BYE
43	44	St. Joan of Arc Knights	Barrie	ON	1-0	0-0	W 30-0 vs. St. Theresa’s
44	45	A. N. Myer Marauders	Niagara Falls	ON	1-0	0-0	W 56-0 vs. Centennial
45	46	Nelson Lords	Burlington	ON	0-0	0-1	BYE
46	40	London South Lions	London	ON	0-1	1-0	L 27-14 vs. Laurier
47	49	Grant Park Pirates	Winnipeg	MB	1-2	1-0	W 23-14 vs. Oak Park
48	50	Kennebecasis Crusaders	Quispamsis	NB	3-0	0-0	W 35-6 vs. Harrison Trimble
49	UR	St. Patrick Saints	Thunder Bay	ON	2-0	0-0	W 26-23 vs. St. Ignatius
50	50	St. Thomas More Knights	Burnaby	BC	0-0	1-2	L 38-13 vs. G.W. Graham