NORTH VANCOUVER — The Carson Graham Eagles are the football team whose fourth quarters have become more like first-run movies.
So epic, so grand and so totally unpredictable, they have become the dramatic equivalent of those car-chase scenes which defy logic right to the rolling of final credits.
On Saturday, with its Subway Bowl playoff season set to begin with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff in Kamloops against Prince George’s Duchess Park Condors, Eagles’ head coach John Buchanan wouldn’t be adverse to a game that goes to script.
But based on the finishes his team has been a part of since last season’s heartbreaking, last-second loss in the B.C. Double A final to Nanaimo’s John Barsby Bulldogs, every snap of the ball carries blockbuster potential.
Take last Friday’s improbable, come-from-behind regular season finale against the Nanaimo District Islanders.
Trailing 48-13 midway through the third quarter, Carson Graham (5-2) scored 40 unanswered points to win 53-48.
To Buchanan, it was the kind of finish that reinforced the notion that his team will do whatever it takes to earn a trip back to the title game.
“To come back from 48-13, to score five straight touchdowns and to throw five straight two-point conversions in a quarter-and-a-half shows that when they put their mind to it, they can accomplish things,” Buchanan said. “They have the confidence and they have gotten results.”
That is the truth, but to those outside of the Eagles’ camp, it’s a comment that might require a little suspension of disbelief. Yet examine what a team led by quarterback Mike Worthen — who threw what is believed to be a school-record seven touchdown passes against the Islanders — and a slew of sure-handed receivers has been able to accomplish, and you can see where Buchanan is coming from.
“None of our receivers are huge guys like Brayden,” Buchanan begins of former Eagles’ star Brayden Lenius, now starting for the Washington Huskies, “but we have guys that can go deep and we have a lot of good yards-after-the-catch guys, too.”
From the vertical dynamism of Josh Servillon and Kieran Benedito, to Tyler Nylander and Lucas Bill in the slot, there are a host of weapons for Worthen to target.
And now, as running back Russell Tolentino finally begins to regain full health, a ground game has begun to emerge which makes the Eagles even more dangerous.
Most of all, however, is the team’s unflappable belief that it can return to the championship game and make amends for its nightmarish 2013 finish.
Last season, Carson Graham players crumpled to the turf at B.C. Place after failing in their attempt to snap the ball in time to kick a potential 37-yard title-winning field goal with one second left on the game clock.
Just a week previous, the Eagles had stunned South Delta 28-21 in the provincial semifinal, and this season there has been no shortage of Hollywood finishes.
After not practicing through the teachers’ strike in September, Carson Graham dropped a 26-25 decision to a No. 4-ranked Ballenas Whalers team which was playing its fourth game of the campaign.
Somehow, the Eagles hung on to beat rival Handsworth 49-48 in the annual Buchanan Bowl when the Royals went for a late two-point convert that would have won them the game.
In a rematch with John Barsby, Carson Graham led 28-24 in the late stages but wound up losing 30-28. In that game, Tolentino’s sore back kept him out for the first three quarters.
“I came back and played in the fourth quarter because I felt like the team needed me,” he explained. “Last season finished with such a tough loss, but we’re fired up about coming back.”
What is it they say on the movie set? Oh yeah, “Action.”
