The dream had to end at some time, didn't it?
The Argyle Pipers senior football team, winners of just one regular season game in three seasons since rebooting their program in 2011, couldn't start this season by winning their first five league games, including back-to-back wins over both of last year's provincial AA finalists, could they?
No, they could not. But they came pretty close.
The dream run ended Friday when the Pipers were pulled back to reality by a fired up Carson Graham Eagles squad. Before that loss to the Eagles, however, the former doormats had been battering rams, knocking off four straight wins including a massive 13-12 upset Oct. 17 over the then No. 1-ranked John Barsby Bulldogs, last season's provincial champs. Six days later Argyle was aiming to take out Carson Graham, last year's runnerup, but the Eagles were not interested in letting the Cinderella story continue, smacking down the Pipers 34-7.
"Just too many mistakes," Argyle head coach Wayne Theobald said about his team's showing against Carson Graham. "Well-coached, talented, big, strong — they're a tough team. . . . They just have so much talent. Fumbles, turnovers, missed assignments too - you do that against a team like (Carson), you're going to pay. And boy, did we ever pay."
Theobald could only chuckle at the blowout loss to Carson Graham coming less than a week after the huge upset win on the road over Barsby.
"That was a fantastic win for us," he said. "But it was kind of funny - as well as we played that game, it was the opposite today. We were fired up, we executed, we didn't make any mistakes. Today was the exact opposite. . . . Last week a lot of good things, this week there's a lot of stuff that we need to work on."
That the Pipers are even in the conversation at this point in the season is a testament to their massive turnaround. The school resurrected football after a 30-year hiatus in 2011 and the team went on to lose all their games against low-level teams in the Tier 2 league that season. In 2012 the team moved up to the AA ranks and managed to win one exhibition matchup but lost all of their league games, failing to register a single point in five out of six of them. Last year the team got that elusive first league win — 37-0 over Sentinel, another new program — but that was it for the season.
Coming into this year there wasn't much reason for outside observers to think the team's fortunes would shift dramatically, but the Argyle players and coaches knew better. While the senior teams of the past were stocked with lineups full of players with little or no football experience, it was an entirely different situation with the school's junior team. With coach Theobald running the show and his son, Cole, quarterbacking a group of players that had been playing youth league together for years, the Argyle juniors put up respectable numbers right from the start and were given the opportunity to grow together. Those players have now graduated to the senior ranks, Wayne Theobald moving up with them for his first year as senior coach, and the B.C. football world is seeing a whole new side to the Argyle Pipers.
"A lot of these kids have played football for a long time," said Wayne. "It's a different group." The team also plays a fun, free-wheeling style, chucking the ball all over the field with an offence run by co-ordinators Leif Penn and Bill Stanger.
"We've got two good offensive coaches, good receivers, good quarterback," said Wayne. "We like to throw."
With their fast start the Pipers have thrown themselves into a logjam in the Western AA Conference. Barsby, Argyle and the Ballenas Whalers are all tied at 4-1 with Carson right behind at 3-1 with a game at hand. This week's matchups will sort most of the questions out with Barsby coming to the North Shore Thursday to take on Carson Graham and Argyle heading to the Island to battle the Whalers Saturday.
The Pipers can see a path deep into the AA playoffs, something that would have been unimaginable just one year ago.
"We've got some high expectations," said Wayne, adding that the team needs to stay positive following their loss to Carson Graham. "Sometimes the season has ups and downs. You have good days but you have bad days too, and how do you react to that? Do we start finger-pointing and blaming everybody else or do we look at ourselves and look at what we can improve?" The coach isn't even ruling out taking a run at winning it all.
"We've got a good shot," he said. "If we can beat Ballenas we'd end up one of the higher seeds and that could help us with our draw. We're hoping to go far."
The dream is over. Long live the dream.
• • •
Carson Graham employed a balanced attack in their win over Argyle Friday, getting more than 200 yards on the ground and through the air. Quarterback Mike Worthen went 15 for 22 for 201 yards and three touchdowns while Russell Tolentino rushed 17 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns. Lucas Bill led the receivers, catching nine passes for 127 yards and two touchdowns, including an impressive 49-yard deep bomb late in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.
The Eagles will battle the Bulldogs in a rematch of last year's provincial final Thursday starting at 2 p.m. at Carson Graham.
