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Historic night for Sun Devils

Lucas Kirk fires six touchdown passes as South Delta wins its first-ever championship at provincial AAA level

Only B.C. Place Stadium's retractable roof prevented the South Delta Sun Devils from providing an early December Symphony of Fire show over the skies of Vancouver on Saturday night.

The Tsawwassen high school football team's vaunted passing attack was on full display in the biggest game of the year as the Sun Devils captured the provincial AAA championship with a dominating 55-30 win over the three-time defending champion Mt Douglas Rams. It was the program's third B.C. title and first-ever in the sport's highest tier.

"I think this shows the AA teams can play in AAA," smiled head coach Ray Moon whose team was moved up at the end of last season when the tiering numbers were adjusted. "We just never had the depth before to compete at this level. Now we do and we showed we can play with the big boys."

No kidding.

Led by the sensational play of quarterback Lucas Kirk, the Rams had no answer for a Sun Devils team that punted just twice the entire game.

The Grade 12 pivot fired six touchdown passes to five different receivers as South Delta raced out to a 33-10 halftime lead. The combined 85 points made it the highest scoring AAA provincial final in the history of B.C. High School Football.

It was hard to believe the previously unbeaten Rams handed South Delta its only loss of the season - a 44-7 drubbing in Victoria back in early October.

"Last time we just did not show up," said Kirk, who was named the game's top back. "It wasn't a good representation of our football team. It was the first time we got beat the whole season and we got beat bad. "We wanted to just come out tonight and execute. It was awesome."

With the season dedicated to the memory of longtime Sun Devils and South Delta Rams volunteer Randy Franklin, it was only fitting his son Thomas scored the game's opening touchdown on a 53-yard toss from Kirk. It was Franklin's major a week earlier that ignited a 16-13 comeback semi-final win over No. 1 ranked Terry Fox.

"We thought we could take advantage of Tommy's size against their smaller (defensive backs) with a couple of long ones," said offensive coordinator Mark McDonald. Of course it doesn't hurt that Lucas is pretty good at scrambling and stuff. He is one in a million."

The Devils opened up a 13-3 lead when Kirk connected with Grade 10 running back Grant McDonald on a 22-yard passing play. The Rams returned the ensuing kickoff to the South Delta 30 and scored three plays later to make it 13-10.

Their momentum was short-lived as it was South Delta's turn to come up big on special teams. The versatile Bryce Connors, a soccer standout who hadn't played organized football until last year, took the kickoff and used his outstanding speed to go the distance from 81-yards out.

McDonald added his second touchdown on a fourth and two gamble. His older brother Jack, who earned game MVP honors thanks to his strong three-way play, then hauled in a 37-yard pass from Kirk in the final minute of the opening half to increase the South Delta lead to 23 points.

Any chance of a Rams' comeback was extinguished early in the fourth quarter when Kirk hit the surehanded Gord Cooper from 24-yards out to make it 43-17.

For good measure, Kirk connected with Connors on touchdown passes of 35 and eight yards to close out the scoring. He finished the night completing 23 of 37 passes for 342 yards.

Not to be forgotten was another terrific effort by the Sun Devils' defence and an offensive line that allowed Kirk to flourish.

The Sun Devils finished with an 11-1 overall record.

"We knew we had crapped the bed in Victoria," added Moon. "But it was also a reality check and a motivating factor. The boys knew they had to work harder and listen more.

"We had such a good week of practice and even in warm-up they had their game faces on. The kids really came up big."

Sun Devils roster includes: #2 Blake Gau, #5 Ryan Littlewood, #7 Cooper Jones, #8 Michael Mann, #9 Lucas Kirk, #10 Kyle Chace, #11 Jack McDonald, #12 Joel Kraft, #21 Christos Goulas, #22 Grant McDonald, #23 Bryce Connors, #25 Stefanos Goulas, #26 Alec Patterson, #30 Charlie Moore, #32 Thomas Franklin, #41 Max Cragg, #52 Mitchell McMann, #53 Matt Ward, #54 Kris Hothi, #55 Dimitri Goulas #55 Justin Smith, #60 Linc Li, #62 Kyle Geere, #64 David Edwards, #66 Ian Jiang, #67 Arsenly Dolynnyy, #68 Aaron Hooymans, #70 Ryan von Ende, #72 Wyatt Bates, #80 Max Youngson, #81 Colin Peterson, #82 Matthew Harrison, #83 Ben Tetzel, #85 Michael Cummins, #88 Gord Cooper.

Coaching staff: Ray Moon (head coach), Mark McDonald (offensive coordinator), Bruce McDonald (defensive coordinator), Gary Cooper (offensive/defensive line coach), Ray Beisick (defensive backs coach), John Mann (quarterbacks coach), Kris Pechet (running backs coach), Ricky Singla (line coach). Support staff: Darrell Ross (trainer), Joe Campbell (equipment manager).