THE West Vancouver Highlanders are heading to the B.C. senior AAA football playoffs thanks in large part to one of the greatest individual performances the province has ever seen.
Quarterback Johnny Franklin threw for 317 yards and six touchdowns while also rushing for 114 yards and two more scores in a 62-30 win over New Westminster on Oct. 26 that clinched a spot in the playoffs for the Highlanders and eliminated the Hyacks.
"He was pretty unreal that day," West Van head coach Shawn Anderson told the North Shore News, adding that in his time spent as a player and coach at the high school level he'd never heard of a player in B.C. accounting for eight touchdowns in one game.
The Grade 12 quarterback, who is also a high-level hockey player, is only in his first year at the position but his athleticism has helped him excel this season, said Anderson. His passing is greatly enhanced by his ability to take off and run with the ball - something that he did numerous times against New West.
"We've been saving a few things in terms of using (Johnny) as more of a running back type player. We decided to pull that out for this game because we knew the importance of it," said Anderson. "He gives us the best chance to win. We tried to protect Johnny the majority of the year to make sure that when we needed him to kind of add this element to his game, we were able to use it."
The team went all out against New West knowing that they needed one more win to make the playoffs and that their final game of the regular season was against powerhouse St. Thomas More.
"It was (basically) a playoff game for us," said Anderson. "If we won we were in, if we lost there was a good chance we were out. We had to pull out all the stops and we really started to use (Johnny) both as a running quarterback and just to let him throw the ball as well. He made some great passes."
The score was 14-0 before New West had a chance to run a single play. The Hyacks fumbled the opening kickoff and West Van recovered in great field position. Franklin made them pay right away, rushing 27 yards for a score on the first snap. The Highlanders then recovered an onside kick and drove for their second score, a 19-yard pass from Franklin to star receiver Blake Whiteley. From there the rout was on. Whiteley ended the day with six catches for 90 yards and three touchdowns while being double-teamed for much of the game. The attention focused on Whiteley and Franklin opened up space for receiver Bobby Butchofsky who had a big game, catching eight passes for 190 yards and three touchdowns while also scoring another major on the ground.
"He had a monster game for us - he played awesome," said Anderson. "That was really a breakout game for him and for us hopefully it means if teams want to continue to double team Blake, they're going to have to contend with some of our other receivers. . . . The huge advantage of having Blake Whiteley is he really does draw a double team. We put him to one side of the field and had three to four receivers on the other side of the field. When you cover one guy with two guys, somebody is going to end up being open."
The Highlanders got a standout performance on defence from Grade 12 linebacker James Oswald who led the team with eight tackles and a sack. Oswald also played a huge part in preparing the Highlanders to face New West's tricky single wing offence.
"He was calling the defences, knew the plays," said Anderson. "He was running film meetings (the week before the game). He really is an unsung hero on this team and one of the major reasons we got to the playoffs."
The Highlanders were back on the field last Friday for the final game of the regular season but, with a playoff spot already wrapped up, came up short in a 40-27 loss to STM, who clinched top spot in the Eastern Conference with a 5-1 regular season record. The Highlanders finished at 2-4, good enough for third spot in the Western Conference. They'll meet Kelowna's Rutland secondary, third-place finishers from the Okanagan Conference, to open the playoffs Saturday at 3 p.m. at BC Place Stadium.
It's a big turnaround for the Highlanders who have not made the playoffs since 2007. The team folded halfway through the year in 2010 due to lack of numbers. They came back in 2011 but missed the playoffs following a 1-4 season. The resurgence is a testament to the work the players have done during a difficult time, said Anderson.
"They've put in a lot of hard work and now they've seen some payoff to it which is only going to help our program going forward," he said. "To try to convince kids to work hard with no playoffs in the past has been very difficult. But now they've seen that they can get there and hopefully we can come away with a win or two in the playoffs and see what happens."
The season is already a success - one of the team's main goals was to make it to BC Place for a playoff game.
"That'll just be the culmination of three to four years since I've been here of these kids working hard towards improving their game, not just within the season but also in the offseason and showing that that work ultimately pays off and takes them to the goals that they set out at the beginning of the year."
Now that they've made the playoffs, however, the Highlanders will once again hold nothing back in going for wins, said Anderson.
"(We'll) let Blake do what he does, let Johnny do what he does, and really rely on a solid defensive core," he said. "We'll pull out every play that we have in the playbook to try and pull off a win."
