VANCOUVER — Subway Bowl season just seems all the more official when the doors swing open at B.C. Place Stadium for the quarterfinal round.
On Saturday’s five games will be played under the dome. Three others remain in the great outdoors: Friday at Burnaby Lakes and Greater Vernon Athletic Park, and Saturday at Merle Logan Field in Nanaimo.
Today, Varsity Letters breaks down all eight games.
SUBWAY BOWL 2018 DRAW
QUARTERFINALS
TOP HALF DRAW
QUADRANT A
New Westminster (W-4) at Lord Tweedsmuir (E-1)
(Saturday, 5 p.m. at B.C. Place Stadium)
The skinny — Talk about jumping into the stream and having to adjust to immediately adjust to the running current. The defending champion Hyacks, coming off an opening-round win over Abbotsford, have not won consecutive games since the end of September so their chin straps have to stay fastened and they will have to find their game early against a Tweedsmuir team which seemingly is without a weakness, went a perfect 7-0 with three straight shutouts in conference play, and has not allowed a point since Oct.12.
QUADRANT B
Notre Dame (W-2) at Terry Fox (E-3)
(Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at B.C. Place Stadium)
Terry Fox won’t try to fool anyone in terms of their ground-based attack, yet there are so many weapons and schemes to try to mind that the Jugglers will have to play their best defensive game of the season. Cade Cote, Liam Cumarasamy, Jaden Severy and Ethan Shuen have all proven themselves to be dynamic with a football in their hands.
All of that said, Notre Dame quarterback Will Clarke has been transcendent at times, his will to do whatever it takes apparent. That in concert with the mid-season return of receiver Jerrell Cummings and running back Teon Alexander-Amour makes them the toughest non-conference for the Ravens have faced this season.
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUADRANT C
Mt. Douglas (W-3) at St. Thomas More (E-2)
(Friday, 4 p.m. at Burnaby Lakes)
The skinny — What makes the Knights such a tough out is the fact that their relentless offensive approach translates equally well as a steady, move-the-chains group as it does a dynamic big-play offence, and like their chief Eastern rivals at Lord Tweedsmuir, not a game has gone by this season in which they have not made those home-running hitting plays.
Quarterback Dario Ciccone has been as efficient as they come for STM, and that means this will be a tremendous matchup at quarterback with Rams’ senior pivot Gideone Kremler healthy and playing his best football in two seasons.
QUADRANT D
South Delta (W-5) at Vancouver College (W-1)
(Saturday, 2:30 p.m. at B.C. Place Stadium)
The skinny — In a game filled with playmakers on both sides of the ball, you have to throw out the records of the two teams when you break this one down.
Yes, the Irish have been right there with Lord Tweedsmuir as the tier’s two most consistent programs this season.
Yet on Oct. 6 at Vancouver College, the Irish got their closest test of the season in a 35-34 win over the Sun Devils.
Add it all up, and consider that South Delta quarterback Ben McDonald has been a relentless force of nature coming out of the huddle, and it doesn’t look like a Final 8 matchup.
DOUBLE A
TOP HALF DRAW
QUADRANT A
G.W. Graham (E-1) at John Barsby (W-2)
(Saturday, 12:30 p.m. at Merle Logan Field (Nanaimo)
The skinny — The host Bulldogs could well have re-invented themselves over a season-ending three-week bye that was as long as fall camp. But why change a good thing? quarterback Cam Wright and receiver Steen Rasmussen were a dynamic duo in a regular season-ending 38-12 win over defending champ Windsor.
The Grizz, however, have found all the pieces starting to fit over the past few weeks. Logan Buchwitz has been sensational as a receiver, in concert with running back Jaiden Claassen and quarterbacks Colby Bessette and Grayson Frick.
QUADRANT B
Ballenas (W-4) at Vernon (I-1)
(Friday, 7 p.m. at Greater Vernon Athletic Park)
The skinny — It’s a re-match of last season’s B.V. JV AA final won by Vernon.
The toughest battle the host Panthers faced enroute to a 7-1 regular season was finding consistent competition. Vernon’s only loss was a 50-7 setback at Terry Fox. The Panthers beat AAA Kelowna 21-7, and a quality Foothills Composite team from Okotoks 27-0.
Vernon won the other five games on its schedule by a combined score of 240-6 with four shutouts.
Ballenas has had its ups and down. They’ve lost to playoff teams John Barsby (24-14) and Windsor (35-21) but they have also beaten playoff teams Holy Cross (27-0) and G.W. Graham (22-12). They’ll need the latter team to show up in Vernon.
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUADRANT C
Windsor (W-3) at Robert Bateman (E-1)
(Saturday, 9:30 a.m. at B.C. Place Stadium)
The skinny — If they aren’t the same team that cut a swath through the entire field en route to a AA title last season, the 2018 Dukes are at least cut from the same cloth, adept at playing physical, and winning an in-the-trenches battle with technique and execution. Ryan Werbwoski and John Gelacio, a pair of runners, have been tough to stop.
Windsor, however, has drawn perhaps the tier’s hottest stretch-drive team in Bateman.
The T-Wolves lost out of conference to both Windsor (35-21) and Barsby (25-9), but it helped the Abby squad go 3-0 in league with one-score wins over Langley and G.W. Graham. QB Logan McDonald and receiver/kicker Sam Davenport form a dynamic duo.
QUADRANT D
Holy Cross (W-1) at Prince George (N-1)
(Saturday, 12 p.m. at B.C. Place Stadium)
The skinny — Holy Cross won one game all of last season.
In 2018, they not only finished at No. 2 in the B.C. AA rankings, they won the Western Conference title.
Behind quarterback Andrew Hunt and a cache of speed merchants at the skill positions, they are an explosive, big-play offence.
However Polars’ quarterback Braden Reed has captured the imagination of the entire province with the astounding running numbers he has provided from the pivot position over the past few weeks.
Look for points aplenty when these two offensive-minded teams step on the B.C. Place carpet.
SCOREBOARD
SUBWAY BOWL 2018
ROUND 1
TOP HALF DRAW
QUADRANT A
New Westminster 44 Abbotsford 7
QUADRNT B
Terry Fox 49 Carson Graham 6
Notre Dame 56 W.J. Mouat 14
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUADRANT C
St. Thomas More 27 Nanaimo District 14
Mt. Douglas 35 Kelowna Owls 7
QUADRANT D
South Delta 45 Mission 22
DOUBLE A
TOP HALF DRAW
QUADRANT A
G.W. Graham 59 Kelly Road 6
QUADRANT B
Ballenas 21 Langley 14
BOTTOM HALF DRAW
QUADRANT C
Windsor 49 Clarence Fulton 7
QUADRANT D
Prince George 42 South Kamloops 14
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