“It’s something that you didn’t even know you wanted so bad until you get in the moment.”
For Saskatoon Hilltops running back Boston Davidsen and the rest of the team’s fifth-year graduates, Saturday’s national championship game will mark a special end to their junior football careers.
Champions together back in the 2019 Canadian Junior Football League season, the Hilltops veterans will again have a chance at reclaiming glory on the gridiron.
“This will be the first national championship that a lot of us will play meaningful roles in going back to that last one in 2019 when we were all rookies,” said Davidsen. “It’s something that is not only a culmination of everything from this year, but going back to when we were just making this program.”
That experience raising the Canadian Bowl four years ago was a memorable experience for head coach Tom Sargeant’s current crop of graduates, however he said it’s a completely different experience now getting to make their own mark this weekend.
“They got to see it, they got to see what it was about,” said Sargeant. “But it’s one thing seeing it as a first-year, it’s another thing owning it as a fifth-year.”
The Hilltops will have their chance to own another national championship this weekend in British Columbia, travelling to Vancouver Island to face the Westshore Rebels in the 2023 Canadian Bowl.
A matchup which will mark Saskatoon’s first appearance in the CJFL title game in four years.
According to Sargeant, the Hilltops have been preparing for this game for months and are ready to battle their toughest foe yet.
“That’s sort of who we are,” said Sargeant. “We never worry about getting too high or too low. We’re just going to show up, the coaches are going to prepare these kids to be in the right spots and then they got to make the plays. All year, we’ve been doing that.”
Saskatoon’s lone loss this season came in the team’s first test of the year, falling 32-1 in the team’s annual alumni game during training camp.
Ever since that humbling loss, the Hilltops have been laser focused on putting the pieces together on both sides of the ball to return to their trophy winning tradition.
That’s included a historically stingy defensive core which has allowed just 66 points against all season, while the offence has been built around conference MVP Davidsen who recorded his second-straight 1,000-yard rushing season and an aerial attack which has picked up steam in recent weeks.
The 11-0 Hilltops are coming off their most dominant post-season performance so far, dispatching the St. Clair Saints out of Ontario 43-0 in the CJFL semi-final on October 29 at SMF Field.
Punching their ticket to the Canadian Bowl, the win was punctuated by a CJFL playoff-record six sacks from defensive end Riece Kack.
Causing havoc all season long on opposing quarterbacks, Kack said he’d love nothing more than to equal that number against the Rebels.
“We’re going to have to see,” said Kack. “No promises, but I wouldn’t be upset if I did. It would be a good thing for sure.”
On the other side of the ball will be a Westshore team which captured the British Columbia conference title 33-19 over the Okanagan Sun, who spent most of the season as the top-ranked team in the CJFL.
Matching up against another team out of conference, the ‘Toppers’ say they have been busy in the film room scouting an undefeated Rebels club which outscored their opposition 656-145 this year.
“Film doesn’t lie either,” said defensive lineman Jonathan Stevens. “Sometimes if you watch it over and over again, you almost feel like you have played these guys before.”
Saturday’s game will be a rematch of the 2016 Canadian Bowl, which was captured by the Hilltops 37-25 as part of their run of six-consecutive national titles between 2014 and 2019.
Even with the success the Hilltops have seen on the field through their 11 games so far this season, Sargeant is confident his players have more in the tank.
“We will play our best game Saturday I guarantee you that,” said Sargeant.
If Saskatoon comes out on top in the Canadian Bowl, it will mark a record 23rd national championship in franchise history.
Knowing it will the final game of his Hilltops career, Davidsen is determined to leave everything on the field and bring the blue and gold back on top of Canadian junior football.
“You got one last chance to embrace it all,” said Davidsen. “To come together as a team and shoot for that goal we’ve been going for all year.”
The Hilltops and Rebels will square off at Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Columbia on November 11 at 5:00 pm CST for the 115th edition of the Canadian Bowl.
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