Although the regular season wrapped up more than a week ago, the undefeated Duchess Park Condors still don't who they will face in the junior varsity football first-versus-second P.G. Bowl playoff next Wednesday.
The Condors, who finished atop the four-team standings with a 6-0 record, are still awaiting a ruling from B.C. School Sports and the B.C. High School Football Association, which will decide if they play the Nechako Valley Vikings or the Kelly Road Roadrunners in the final at Masich Place Stadium.
Mike Rositano, head coach of the Condors senior and junior varsity teams, said the problem stems from the fact the Nechako-College Heights junior varsity game score from Wednesday has not been reported to the league.
The BCHSFA website standings have Kelly Road ranked second with a 3-3 record, while Nechako Valley is third with a 2-3 record. If indeed the Vikings did defeat College Heights on Wednesday, Nechako Valley would finish second.
Although each team won once in the two-game regular season series, the Vikings would get the higher standing based on the fact their 22-point win over Kelly Road on Oct. 4 was a greater margin of victory than the Roadrunners' 26-20 win over Nechako Valley on Oct. 15.
"We're just waiting to find out and any day we'll know," said Rositano.
If Kelly Road is the third-place team, the Roadrunners would play the last-place College Heights Cougars, which took an 0-5 record onto the field Wednesday against Nechako Valley. That game would start at 5 p.m., followed by the junior varsity final at 7.
Rositano's senior Condors also finished without a loss this season in the double-A Northern Conference with a 5-0 record, followed by the 4-1 Prince George Polars. Both teams have elected to forego playing the P.G. Bowl playoff originally scheduled for Oct. 31 to try to stay healthy for provincial playoffs.
The Condors will play the Vernon Panthers in a provincial playoff Nov. 7 in Kamloops, while PGSS will face either Clarence Fulton of Vernon or Westsyde of Kamloops in their playoff game.
The winners advance to the provincial quarterfinal against a Western Conference opponent, Nov. 14 in Kamloops. Rositano said even though the Condors would be the host team of that game if they defeat Vernon, the game would not be played in Prince George because Masich Place Stadium lacks an artificial playing surface.
"It has to be turf because of the weather and the possibility of the field getting closed," said Rositano said.
The provincial semifinals are scheduled for Nov. 29 at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium and the final will be played Dec. 6 at B.C. Place Stadium.
Knowing the Interior and Lower Mainland leagues won't wrap regular season play until next weekend, the Condors and Polars plan to play a controlled scrimmage on Saturday, Nov. 1 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Both teams will run plays as if they are facing their Interior opponents, based on scouting reports which focus on each Interior team's tendencies. The players will be encouraged to crank down the intensity on their hits and tackles.
"Both coaches will be on the field and they'll run a scout offence and scout defence against us -- they'll run the defence and offence based on what Vernon's going to run against us and vice-versa," said Rositano. "We'll mix it up and it will be a good couple hours work. It's a good time for getting guys healthy and finishing up the season instead of going right to provincials and banging heads. Having a bye week is nice but we don't want our guys soft."
In senior playoff action Thursday night, the Vanderhoof Vikings and Correlieu Clan met at Masich Place Stadium to decide third place.
