Saskatoon Hilltops advance to sixth straight CJFL final

The Saskatoon Hilltops are off to their sixth Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) championship in a row after their dominating 55-1 win Saturday against the London Beefeaters.

Hilltops coach Tom Sargeant gave credit to the Beefeaters who he said “played them tough at the start,” and forced them to change their game plan a bit.

“We’ve never played in London, Ontario so at one point you saw the sun, then next you saw the rain, the snow, so there’s a lot of elements there and it was fairly cold but once we kicked the ball off the old Saskatchewan toughness came through,” he said.

“Their defence was just spot on. They did a great job of stopping the run and that opened up some of our passing lanes. Tyler Herman was on fire and fifth year Connor Graham had three touchdowns. So pretty impressive performances.”

An interception by Hilltops defensive back Bailey Taylor led to a field goal to open the scoring for the Hilltops in the first quarter. Touchdowns by Ben Abrook and Connor Graham took them to the end of the quarter with a 17-1 lead.

The same trend continued in the following three quarters with four more Hilltops touchdowns and two field goals. That ended up putting 55 points on the board for the Hilltops.

When asked about the game’s big performers, Sargeant brought up the team’s defensive line as well as the momentum the whole team gained from fifth year receiver Connor Graham’s big plays.

“(The defensive line) did a good job of stopping the run and then we started getting that big spread and they had to go to the throw — Tristan Hering, Jesse McNabb and Caleb Haight were just firing off the ball and wreaking havoc. I think we ended up with four or five sacks, so some pretty impressive performances there,” he said.

“We liked the match up against their defensive back and once Connor made the catch, what I loved, was his ability to shake and bake and move things around and add another 60 to 80 yards after the catch, which led to two long-bomb touchdowns. When you get that, it provides great energy to your team, it just adds more confidence to everyone else.”

The Hilltops will be travelling to Langley, B.C. in two weeks for the CJFL championship against the Langley Rams, who they have met in the finals three times since 2012.

The Hilltops beat the Rams in last year’s final with a score of 58-21. Sargeant believes they will be running into an extremely motivated opponent in the finals this time around.

“We’ve had some success against them but, the word on the street is, they are preparing and doing everything they can for the opportunity to knock us down. They went undefeated in their league this year and the coach is tired of us with some of our successes, so they are going to be motivated. They are very talented and we know it’s going to be tough competition,” he said.

“We know we got the biggest bulls-eye in Canada and we embrace that. We have a process, we have a program, we have a belief system, and you know we believe when we get between the lines that as long as we are working hard each night, we’re going to be ready to go. There is confidence there and we just got to go execute the plans.”

The final game is scheduled for Saturday November 16, 2019 in Langley, B.C.

The Hilltops have won five championships in a row, and eight of the last nine titles.