CFC50 High School Rankings WEEK 9: Who will collapse under the pressure in November?

Buckle up, because it’s going to be a wild ride. Only the best programs survive in November.

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HEADLINES

Saskatchewan

• Championship day is set in Regina with LeBoldus looking to embrace the underdog label against Miller at Mosaic Stadium. There have been a few bumps along the road, but the Golden Suns look like they’re playing their best football heading into this massive clash on an impressive four game winning streak, and it’s clear they’re no longer the same team who suffered a 23-2 loss to the Marauders in the season opener.  On the other sideline, Miller have a chance to win their third straight 6A Provincial title, which would put them on pace to potentially match LeBoldus’ vaunted record of five straight provincial crowns from 2012-2016. LeBoldus would love nothing more than to bring an end to Miller’s 20 game unbeaten streak, which began back in 2021 after the Marauders suffered their last loss to – you guessed it – the Golden Suns. It’s going to be cold. There might be some snow. Anything can happen in November.
• On the other side of the province, we’ll get a rubber match between St. Joseph and Holy Cross with the 6A Saskatoon title hanging in the balance. This is the fourth straight season that these two programs will meet in the city finals with Holy Cross winning the first two bouts, and St. Joseph turning the tide last year. This will also be their third meeting in 2023 with the Crusaders taking home a 22-13 victory in the first round, and the Guardians answering back with a 15-12 win in round two. So, what we’re trying to say is there’s a lot of history between these two rivals, and you never know which one will come out on top. The one common theme is that no team from Saskatoon has been able to bring home the 6A Provincial title since 2009 when Aden Bowman defeated Winston Knoll, so whoever prevails will have the weight of any entire city looking to finally reclaim provincial glory.

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Alberta

• Was there ever any doubt? Harry Ainlay is back in the Edmonton Metro finals where they’ll faceoff against newcomers Paul Kane. The Titans are looking for back-to-back city titles, and more importantly to harness some momentum heading into the Provincial Playdowns where they’ll be looking to reclaim their throne after falling to Raymond in the Tier I finals last year. We don’t want to say Paul Kane is just happy to be here, because we know they’d love nothing more than to shock the nation with a win over Harry Ainlay, but regardless of the outcome it’s been a super successful season for the Blues, who decided to move up to the Tier I Carr Division after winning the Tier II Miles Division championship last season. It’s going to be a tall order to defeat Harry Ainlay, who won their only meeting during the regular season 38-7, but if Paul Kane can hang around in the first half they have a ton of big game experience to draw from that could make this one interesting.
• Cowtown is running a little bit behind with their semifinals matchups scheduled later today with Ernest Manning taking on All Saints, and St. Francis clashing with Notre Dame. If recent history is any indication, than we should be looking at Ernest Manning squaring off against Notre Dame in the city finals on Saturday – but we all know history takes a backseat in the postseason.

Ontario

• All good things must come to an end, and that includes Korah’s run of dominance in Northern Ontario. The Colts have transformed themselves into one of the premier programs in Ontario who could do no wrong in the last five years including four straight OFSAA Bowl victories, but their rivals down the road at St. Mary’s have been grinding every day with the motivation that eventually it’ll be the Knights turn back on top in the Soo. All those long hours chasing the Colts success have finally paid off with St. Mary’s defeating Korah 39-22 to reclaim the city title, and now they have a chance to compete for an OFSAA Bowl for the first time since 2012. The Knights will be back in action on Saturday when they faceoff against the champions from North Bay with a spot in the NOSSA finals on the line.
• It’s one of the best rivalries across Canada, but there was no doubt about who the best team was on the field in this chapter with S.J.H. Newman defeating St. Thomas More on the road 32-9. The win secures second seed in the playoffs for the Cardinals, which means we will get a rematch this week in the semifinals, but now it’ll be the Knights hopping on a bus to play in Stoney Creek with their season on the line. Bishop Tonnos will take on Bishop Ryan in the other semifinal, and the winner of both games will secure a spot in the GHAC playdowns against the champions from the Halton Public and Halton Catholic leagues.
• We always love a dark horse storyline, and we’ve got one developing in London with Sir Frederick Banting advancing to the semifinals after a triumphant 35-18 win over Catholic Central. It was a tough start to the year for the Broncos after losing their first two games, but they’ve come to life down the stretch rattling off four straight wins including a 26-7 victory over previously ranked A.B. Lucas in their regular season finale. Now it’s time to figure out if that result was a fluke, or if Sir Frederick Banting are true championship contenders with a rematch against A.B. Lucas in the semifinals. On the other side of the bracket we’ve got a juicy battle between Laurier and South, which saw only three points separating the two in the Rams’ 26-23 victory over the Lions earlier in the year.
• Holy Names kept their undefeated record alive with a convincing 24-1 victory over Sandwich. Both teams entered the game unbeaten, but the Knights proved they are the team to beat heading into the playoffs with only one week left in the regular season to decide the final seeds. Holy Names have one of the best defences in the country allowing just 14 points through five games, and will be tough to topple if they can secure their first berth in an OFSAA Bowl since 2018 – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
• Huron Heights have been true road Warriors this year playing against some stiff American competition throughout September and October, but they finally got back on the road in Canada with a 45-11 victory over Holy Trinity in Courtice. The Warriors have been flying under the radar due to their unorthodox schedule and the fact they don’t have a league to call their own, but you know they will be ready to roll in Windsor for the OFSAA Bowl Festival where they’ll be looking to claim their seventh bowl victory.

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Quebec

• It’s finally playoff time in Quebec, and Saint-Jean-Eudes will enter as the top seed after completing a perfect regular season run with their 14-7 victory over Saint-Francois. This means that the Condors will get a week to relax on the sidelines with a bye, meanwhile the Blizzard have earned  themselves a tough first round matchup against College Notre-Dame. Despite the Cactus dropping their regular season finale against Cure-Antoine-Labelle, we still think they’re one of the most dangerous teams in the bracket with close losses to Saint-Jean-Eudes, College Bourget, Armand-Corbeil and St-Francois, with the Blizzard only managing to beat them 9-8. Can they figure out how to win in the fourth quarter? They better hope so, because they’ve run out of trial runs.

Manitoba

• The semifinals are set in Winnipeg with St. Paul’s ready to take on Grant Park, and Dakota locking horns with Oak Park. It’d be surprising if we didn’t end up with a rematch between St. Paul’s and Dakota in the finals, but don’t count out Oak Park just yet, who have been dominant in their seven victories, and never got a chance to faceoff with Dakota during the regular season. They struggled against St. Paul’s in their only loss – but so did Dakota – so it’ll be very interesting to see how the Raiders stack up against the Lancers.

British Columbia

• Ranking the top teams? No problem. The best of the rest? Absolute chaos. We’ve got two more programs from BC making their first appearance on the list in 2023 after Seaquam handled St. Thomas More 28-14, and Lord Tweedsmuir managed to hang on for a 14-11 victory against Kelowna. The foil in this equation is Rutland, who managed to hammer Lord Tweedsmuir 42-14, and then followed it up the next week with a 20-0 loss to Kelowna. Then you’ve also got Lord Tweedsmuir blowing out Seaquam earlier in the year 34-13 as well. Throw all the names in a hat, because there’s no clear favourite between these five programs. We love the chaos.

Nova Scotia

• What is going on in Nova Scotia? After dropping their first game of the season, we are no longer sure if Bay View are the true favourites. We’ve now got a three-way tie between Bay View, Auburn Drive and Citadel for first place in the standings, but the odd thing is it was CEC who handed the Sharks their first loss 26-23. Bay View stays on the list for now, but we’ve got four programs who could potentially end up on the list at the end of the year.

CFC PROSPECT GAME/CFC SELECTION CAMP NOMINATIONS

PAST RANKINGS: WEEK 1 – WEEK 2 – WEEK 3 – WEEK 4 – WEEK 5 – WEEK 6 – WEEK 7 – WEEK 8

#	Last	School	City	Prov.	Conf. Rec	Non-Conf. Rec	Results
1	1	Miller Marauders	Regina	SK	7-0	0-0-1	W 37-0 vs. Campbell
2	2	Harry Ainlay Titans	Edmonton	AB	8-0	1-0-1	W 42-6 vs. Austin O’Brien
3	3	Vancouver College Fighting Irish	Vancouver	BC	5-0	4-0	W 34-6 vs. Mt. Douglas
4	4	Saint-Jean-Eudes Condors	Québec	QC	9-0	0-0	W 14-7 vs. Saint-Francois
5	7	Huron Heights Warriors	Newmarket	ON	0-0	5-0	W 45-11 vs. Holy Trinity
6	5	Raymond Comets	Raymond	AB	0-0	4-0	W 49-0 vs. Foothills
7	6	St. Paul’s Crusaders	Winnipeg	MB	8-0	0-1	W 35-8 vs. Miles Mac
8	8	Ernest Manning Griffins	Calgary	AB	6-0	1-0	BYE
9	9	Bishop Tonnos Titans	Ancaster	ON	6-0	0-0	W 43-6 vs. St. Jean de Brebeuf
10	10	Carson Graham Eagles	North Vancouver	BC	4-1	2-0	W 42-6 vs. Notre Dame
11	11	Collège Bourget Voltigeurs	Rigaud	QC	7-2	0-0	W 52-21 vs. College Jean-Eudes
12	12	Corpus Christi Longhorns	Burlington	ON	7-0	0-0	W 35-0 vs. St. Ignatius of Loyola
13	13	Dakota Collegiate Lancers	Winnipeg	MB	7-1	0-0	W 69-0 vs. Steinbach
14	15	Laurier Rams	London	ON	4-2	0-0	W 37-7 vs. St. Thomas Aquinas
15	14	Sém. St-François Blizzard	Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaure	QC	7-2	0-0	L 14-7 vs. Saint-Jean-Eudes
16	17	St. John Henry Newman Cardinals	Stoney Creek	ON	5-1	0-0	W 32-9 vs. St. Thomas More
17	16	G.W. Graham Grizzlies	Chilliwack	BC	4-1	2-0	W 41-10 vs. W.J. Mouat
18	18	Nelson Lords	Burlington	ON	5-0	2-0	W 56-0 vs. Craig Kielburger
19	19	London South Lions	London	ON	5-1	0-0	W 42-7 vs. Saunders
20	20	St Joseph Guardians	Saskatoon	SK	5-1	1-1	W 47-0 vs. Centennial
21	21	Armand-Corbeil Scorpions	Terrebonne	QC	6-3	0-0	W 24-19 vs. Charles-Lemoyne
22	22	Frontenac Falcons	Kingston	ON	6-0	0-0	W 32-16 vs. Regiopolis-Notre Dame
23	23	Westmount Wildcats	Hamilton	ON	6-0	0-0	W 47-0 vs. Waterdown
24	27	Holy Names Knights	Windsor	ON	5-0	0-0	W 24-1 vs. Sandwich
25	24	A. N. Myer Marauders	Niagara Falls	ON	6-0	0-0	W 49-0 vs. Sir Winston Churchill
26	32	St. Mary’s Knights	Sault Ste Marie	ON	7-1	0-0	W 39-22 vs. Korah
27	28	Oak Park Raiders	Winnipeg	MB	7-1	0-0	W 49-0 vs. Maples
28	26	St. Matthew Tigers	Ottawa	ON	4-0	0-1	BYE
29	25	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	Welland	ON	6-0	1-0	W 15-6 vs. Saint Michael
30	34	Holy Cross Crusaders	Saskatoon	SK	5-2	0-0	W 46-1 vs. Walter Murray
31	36	St. Joseph Jaguars	Ottawa	ON	5-0	0-0	W 20-17 vs. St. Peter
32	44	Leboldus Golden Suns	Regina	SK	5-2	0-0	W 51-29 vs. Riffel
33	37	Notre Dame Pride	Calgary	AB	5-1	0-2	BYE
34	UR	Sir Frederick Banting Broncos	London	ON	4-2	0-0	W 35-18 vs. Catholic Central
35	39	St. Andrew’s College Saints	Aurora	ON	3-0	1-0	L 49-16 vs. Long Island Lutheran
36	41	Kennebecasis Crusaders	Quispamsis	NB	7-0	0-0	W 42-7 vs. Leo Hayes
37	43	St. Francis Browns	Calgary	AB	5-2	1-0	W 35-3 vs. Centennial
38	30	College Notre-Dame Cactus	Montreal	QC	4-5	0-0	L 21-14 vs. Cure-Antoine-Labelle
39	45	Jacob Hespeler Hawks	Cambridge	ON	5-0	0-1	W 37-7 vs. Glenview Park
40	UR	Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers	Surrey	BC	4-1	2-1	W 14-11 vs. Kelowna
41	UR	Seaquam Seahawks	Delta	BC	4-1	2-0	W 28-14 vs. St. Thomas More
42	35	Kelowna Owls	Kelowna	BC	3-2	1-2	L 14-11 vs. Lord Tweedsmuir
43	UR	Rutland Voodoo	Kelowna	BC	3-2	2-1	W 45-14 vs. Mt. Boucherie
44	31	St. Thomas More Knights	Burnaby	BC	3-2	2-1	L 28-14 vs. Seaquam
45	48	Paul Kane Blues	St. Albert	AB	6-2	0-1	W 7-0 vs. Bev Facey
46	38	Bay View Sharks	Upper Tantallon	NS	4-1	0-0	Waiting vs. Charles P. Allen
47	47	Hammarskjold Vikings	Thunder Bay	ON	6-0-1	0-0	17-10 vs. St. Patrick
48	49	Bear Creek Kodiaks	Barrie	ON	5-0	0-0	W 43-0 vs. Maple Ridge
49	40	Holy Trinity Titans	Courtice	ON	4-0	0-1	L 45-11 vs. Huron Heights
50	UR	Northern Red Knights	Toronto	ON	4-1	0-0	W 42-7 vs. Richview