Final observations on Canyon-Crespi
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As we walked toward one of the field exits at Harry Welch Stadium, the last question I asked Crespi WR David Valencia in our post-game chat was, ‘Where’s your coach?’
After a quick glance over his shoulder, Valencia and a teammate pointed him out to me.
Jeremiah Ross was the last Crespi representative still on the field, sitting on the metal team bench with a look of exasperation and disappointment I could detect from 60 yards away. As I approached him, you could tell Canyon‘s 17-14 victory over his boys -- his second three-point loss to the Cowboys in as many years -- wasn’t easy to swallow.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Ross said. ‘We made a lot of mistakes and we didn’t get the running game going like we would have liked to. They’ve got a really great defense, but we can really do better as a team. We have to.’
OK, there were definitely miscues on offense that could have cost them the game (that bad snap in the first quarter and a Ray Maldonado‘s interception come to mind), but ultimately it was Canyon’s defense that stole the spotlight from the favored Celts.
The Cowboys held RBs Austin Shanks and E.J. Woods to less than 30 yards rushing. This forced Crespi to use the arm of inexperienced QB Bryan Bennett to keep the team afloat and, while he did connect on 25 of 48 passes for 385 yards and a TD, many of his passes were overthrown -- a few so much so that I don’t think even Terrell Owens could have reached them.
I was a little surprised by how well Mike Spagnola and friends kept Crespi down, but maybe that’s because I’ve been underestimating them. After all, turnovers off fumbles and interceptions are a big reason Canyon fell short against Notre Dame, St. Bonny and Chaminade, not necessarily because the defense played poorly.
While Spagnola and the rest of the linebacking crew killed the Celts’ running game, Canyon’s secondary made several big plays on third and fourth downs too. Maldonado, Corey McLaughlin and Sean Crane swatted down a passes on fourth down and Bennett had to sometimes throw exaggerated passes in a hope that guys like Woods, Valencia and Mikio Island could win a footrace against Canyon’s tight coverage.
Bennett also had difficulty stringing together enough completions to prevent numerous run-starved offensive drives from fizzling out. But that was all part of the Canyon plan to force Crespi into throwing the ball.
Still, more than anything, this game should proved to all the doubters that Canyon has what it takes to make things interesting in the Foothill League title race with Hart and Saugus.
I’ll admit, before this game I thought Hart, ranked No. 7 by The Times, was unquestionably the top dog in the league, but now I’m not so sure.
All I know is, next week’s showdown between the Indians and Cowboys will be like it usually is -- great.
Finally, if you have established your free log-in account with Vootage.com, here’s last night’s game in its entirety.
- Austin Knoblauch
