PREP FOOTBALL : Century League : Robert Lee Rises Again to Help Lead Santa Ana Over Canyon

Robert Lee put on his second impressive performance in as many weeks, leading Santa Ana High School to a 37-0 victory over Canyon Friday night in Santa Ana Stadium.

Lee rushed for 213 yards and 4 touchdowns in 19 carries to help the Saints improve their record to 2-0 in the Century League and 6-1 overall.

The victory set up a showdown Friday night against the Foothill Knights, who are also unbeaten in league play and the defending league champions.

What Foothill will face in Santa Ana is a team whose best player has begun to make the contributions expected of him, taking the pressure off an offense that had been forced to rely on the rushing of quarterback Richard Fanti for the first part of this season.

Lee rushed for 200 yards for the second straight game.

“He’s always been a slow starter,” Santa Ana Coach Dick Hill said of the player who helped the Saints win the Southern Conference title last December. “But it looks like he’s ready to play football again. Plus, the offensive line has been blocking better--he had more room to run tonight.”

Lee’s first five carries Friday were for 19, 11, 14, 22 and 13 yards, serving to deflate Canyon’s spirits in the process. All four of Lee’s touchdowns came in the first half on runs of 22, 27, 6 and 12 yards--and he had a 45-yard score called back because of a penalty.

There was little secret to the Santa Ana attack--the Saints simply opened holes off tackle to spring Lee into the secondary, and the 6-foot, 210-pound junior took care of the rest.

Lee is one back who is rarely brought down by a solo tackle. The Canyon defense was forced to gang tackle him, and often he just ran over the smaller Comanche defensive backs en route to his scores.

Not only did Lee post those four touchdowns, but he also scored a pair of two-point conversions for the Saints by simply bulling his way into the end zone even after the Canyon defenders met him at the line of scrimmage.

The game was 30-0 at halftime, and Fanti added a third-quarter touchdown on a 10-yard run to finish out the scoring for the Saints.

Canyon got a nice performance from quarterback Matt Waddell, who completed 10 of 19 passes for 108 yards, but penalties and fumbles kept the Comanches out of the end zone as much as the stubborn Santa Ana defense did.

Canyon (0-2, 2-5) is at El Modena Friday.