Trent Price didn't need to look at the scoresheet to remind him of the punishment he endured on the high school football field Friday afternoon in Kamloops.
His bruised and battered body offered up plenty of painful reminders of what the Carson Graham Eagles of North Vancouver dished out on him and the rest of the Prince George Polars in a 34-20 B.C. High School Football Association double-A varsity playoff victory.
"I'm pretty sore right now, that was definitely one of my toughest games - it was a lot of hard hitting and they had a lot of fresh bodies and I was just getting tired out there," said Price. "We both had no-huddle offences so we were just hitting each other with no time for breaks. It was a fight all the way through."
The five-foot-nine, 225-pound linebacker/running back rested for only five or six plays the entire game and admitted he didn't have his best game on offence, gaining about 50 yards, but he was a hawk on defence.
Using his instincts to anticipate where the ball was heading, he led all PGSS tacklers with 10.
The Eagles brought a full roster of 35 players and wore down a Polars squad of 21.
Most of the Polar starters play both ways - offence and defence - and that meant very little time to rest between plays, especially when dealing with the Eagles' no-huddle offence. With bodies to spare, they were relentless in pounding the Polars and eventually won the war of attrition.
In his last high school football game with the Polars, graduating senior Isaac Rogers run for 178 yards on 22 carries and three touchdowns to lead the PGSS offence.
Down 20-14 at halftime, the Polars tied it up on their first possession of the third quarter when Rogers got free and took off on a 10-yard end zone run.
But the Eagles had an quick answer to that. On the next drive they gave the ball to their top offensive weapon - five-foot-11, 185-pound running back Flynn Heyes - and he took it over the goal line from 30 yards out to put Carson Graham back in the lead and they never looked back.
"We really beat the crap out of each other, right off the bat, it was a pretty rough game, they hit hard and came in flying and they have some real big boys and they were strong too," said Rogers.
"Their numbers really helped them. If we had the numbers they had we would have been able to keep up to them. Our conditioning did kick in and we were able to hold them off and when we tied it up we were pretty pumped. It was looking really good. But we were gassed on defence and they made some adjustments and were able to slow down our run game."
The Polars air attack produced 70 yards of offence. Rogers hauled in a Kaiden Witso pass for a 20-yard gain and Witso also hooked up with Noah Williams for a 50-yard catch and run.
Eagles quarterback Tyler Nylander iced it in the fourth quarter with a long pass to Heyes. Nylander and Heyes formed a lethal combination all game.
"They came out with a hurry-up offence, which is what we run and it took us a bit to get adjusted," said Polars offensive co-ordinator Don Williams.
"Usually when we're on defence we get a chance to catch our breath because the other teams do a normal huddle, but these guys were hurry-up, so that took us off guard a bit. They were a strong running team and they also threw well.
"Where the big difference for us was from previous teams was their offensive and defensive lines were really physical."
The Polars, under head coach Brett Morrow, were already in uncharted territory as the first Prince George senior varsity team to ever win a BCHSFA playoff game and they were hoping for at least one more win to cinch a berth in a provincial semifinal at B.C. Place Stadium next week. PGSS defeated Vernon 19-0 last week in Kamloops.
"Our goal was to win in the first round and we did, so this game was a bonus," said coach Williams. "It would have been nice to win one more game, but we're as happy as you can be when you lose. The kids played well and held their heads high at the end of the game, it was an awesome year."
Both of the Polars' playoff games were considered home games for PGSS but were played in Kamloops, the closest artificial turf field to Prince George. BCHSFA rules require all-weather fields for all playoff games. Win or lose, the Polars would've loved to finish their season at home.
"I really don't regret anything, we fought to the last man in this game and the team really banded together as we fought out those last couple quarters," said Rogers. "It would have been a good game to watch but it was a better game to play."
"We made history," added Price. "It was the best year of any Prince George high school team and it sucks to end it today, but that's life."
