Canyon Survives 4th-Quarter Rally by North Torrance

Canyon High’s football players walked off the Cowboys’ field Friday night with their heads hanging.

Their coach, Harry Welch, talked about how they had played against North Torrance: “As a team, it was one of our low points this season. We just didn’t play well. We weren’t crisp, we weren’t enthusiastic.”

But they were victorious.

Canyon jumped out to a 21-point lead, then held on to beat North Torrance, 21-13, in the first round of the Coastal Conference playoffs.

Canyon, the conference’s top-ranked team, improved its record to 9-2. The Cowboys have eight victories in a row and have won 29 consecutive games at Canyon. North Torrance, which finished in a three-way tie for first place in the Bay League, dropped to 5-6.

Canyon will play Pasadena, a 31-24 first-round winner over Camarillo, next week.

“I’m very disappointed,” Welch said. “Normally we play our type of football but tonight we didn’t.”

Nevertheless, Canyon shut down North Torrance while jumping out to a 21-0 lead. But in the fourth quarter, the Saxons scored two touchdowns and were heading for a third when penalties slowed them and the clock ran out.

“We didn’t play too well,” Canyon quarterback Rod Baltau said. “We got up, 21-0, and after that, we lost our fire. We were mellow.”

Baltau was responsible for putting the Cowboys ahead, 21-0. With running back Chris Peery sidelined because of a strained ankle and Achilles’ tendon, Baltau took charge of the offense, completing 7 of 12 passes for 142 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also scored Canyon’s other touchdown on a two-yard run.

“I felt the load would come to me. I knew I’d have to play a pretty good game,” Baltau said. “I was glad that I had a chance to prove myself.”

Said Welch: “Rod was super.”

Canyon was ahead, 14-0, at the end of the first half. On the Cowboys’ first drive, Baltau threw for 29 yards and scored on a two-yard keeper.

Canyon scored again on its first possession of the second quarter when Baltau connected with tight end Ken Holsenbeck on a 35-yard fly pattern down the middle of the field.

Baltau’s 27-yard screen pass to tailback Chris Eddy put Canyon ahead, 21-0, in the third quarter and seemingly put the game out of reach. But North Torrance bounced back to put a scare in the Cowboys, who are the No. 1-seeded team in the conference.

“Well, it’s not pretty,” Canyon assistant Mike Reno said to a friend after the game, “but it beats watching Dallas on TV next week.”