The Terry Fox Ravens have won the past 10 Coquitlam Cup varsity high school football games.
But Ravens coach Tom Kudaba is realistic about his team's chances this year against its crosstown rivals: the Centennial Centaurs.
Terry Fox heads into the local showdown without a victory to its name this season.
Instead, Kudaba is looking at the game as a bit of a reprieve for his beaten and beaten up charges who’ve been waylaid by injuries and inexperience en route to an 0-5 record in regular season games.
“It has been a struggle to field a competitive team,” Kudaba said of the Ravens, who’ve been outscored by its opponents 144-28.
“Our team has generally played well for some games but seems to run out of gas and hence come the defeats.”
On the other side of the ball, Centaurs coach Dino Geremia said this year’s regular season climax not only presents his team a perfect opportunity to cast aside the lodestone of 10 straight losses in the Coquitlam Cup, but it will also be a chance for players continue their trajectory upwards despite its single victory in the standings.
“Our focus is on our goal to get better each week,” Geremia said.
“We know going into Friday night we must play our best game of the year and that we cannot have any lapse in our focus and execution.”
Since opening the regular season schedule in September with a 34-14 win over Belmont, Centennial has lost its last four games.
But Geremia said the team has battled hard every quarter and last week pushed the New Westminster Hyacks before succumbing 41-35.
Geremia said quarterback Rohan Aulakh has fully embraced his role as the Centaurs’ leader and twins Fabrizio and Fabian Rios Gomez have been stalwarts on the line — both defensively and when Centennial has the ball.
“These three will lead, but we will need each player to play their role in order to achieve our goal,” Geremia said.
Friday’s game starts at 7 p.m.
And for the first time this season, Terry Fox will be hosting at Percy Perry Stadium at Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park after renovations to the facility through the late summer and fall forced the team to play home games at Centennial’s new turf field.
