Prep Football Game of the Week : Canyon Country Routs Crespi Again

The Crespi High of Encino football team had hoped to erase some bad memories Friday night.

Instead, Canyon of Canyon Country dredged up a nightmare for the Celts, rolling to a 35-0 victory before a crowd of about 5,000 at Birmingham High.

“They stuffed us real good,” Crespi Coach Bill Redell said.

Canyon stuffed the Celts even better last season, handing Crespi a 46-0 loss that was the school’s worst setback in 20 years.

But Crespi was 0-9-1 last year, while Canyon was winning its second straight Northwestern Conference championship.

This time, the Celts came in unbeaten in four games and unscored upon in 12 quarters.

But Canyon, in stretching the state’s second-longest winning streak to 29 games, beat them in every way imaginable.

The San Fernando Valley’s top-ranked team rolled up 322 total yards, including 210 rushing, while limiting fourth-ranked Crespi to just 48 total yards and two first downs.

The best thing that happened to Crespi was when a generator blew out in the first half, forcing a cable television company to stop filming the game, which was scheduled to be shown Monday night.

It was 21-0 before Crespi got its first first down, 3 minutes 47 seconds into the second half. It was 28-0 when Crespi got its second first down early in the fourth quarter.

“They shut everything down,” Redell said. “I didn’t expect to have them shut us down so completely.”

Canyon Coach Harry Welch called his team’s performance its best of the season.

“For whatever reason, Crespi never got into its offense,” said Welch, a Crespi alumnus and former assistant coach at the school. “I think that we played better defense than any team they’ve played against.”

Offensively, too, the Cowboys were better than anything Crespi had seen since, well, its game against Canyon last season.

Lance Cross and Paul Chadwell led the running attack, Cross carrying 24 times for 103 yards and Chadwell rushing for 63 yards in 13 carries and scoring three touchdowns.

“Our offensive line executed as well as it has all year,” Welch said.

Quarterback John Watkins completed 7 of 12 passes for 112 yards and a touchdown, and ran for the Cowboys’ other two touchdowns.