Canyon Holds Off Thousand Oaks in Return to Form

After two consecutive losses--three including last season’s semifinal loss in the Coastal Conference playoffs--Canyon High’s 17-14 victory over Thousand Oaks on Friday night at Canyon did far more than just raise its record to a decidedly un-Cowboylike 1-2.

“It’s going to be a big lift for the team,” said quarterback Rod Baltau, who threw the game-winning touchdown pass in the third quarter. “The last two weeks we played good football but not our kind of football.”

And that is Canyon Coach Harry Welch’s cue when speaking of his program.

“It could have survived, but negatives play on people’s minds, and these are young men,” he said. “That was the closest thing to Cowboy football we’ve seen.”

The possession that actually won it for Canyon was not a scoring drive. It came with 8:23 left and started at the Canyon 2-yard line. The Cowboys reeled off 15 plays--14 on the ground. It was clear that Thousand Oaks couldn’t stop the drive and that only the clock could. It finally did, with the Cowboys sitting on the Lancer 8.

“The reality is, you just want to get yourself out of a hole,” Baltau said. “From the 2-yard line, a lot of bad things can happen.”

Thousand Oaks, however, appeared to corner the market on bad things. The Lancers were penalized 15 times for 80 yards--including 12 offside calls.

“We have to really address that defensively,” Thousand Oaks Coach Bob Richards said. “It’s a problem. If that continues, we’re going to be on the short end a lot.”

The Lancers, trying to defend their Coastal Conference title, are 1-2.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, came in trying to defend their pride. Junior Tim Beidle started at quarterback over Baltau and completed 5 of 6 passes in the first half.

“He was 5 for 6?” Welch asked in jest afterward. “Why’d I pull him? What a dummy.”

Baltau, who was 6 of 12 for 102 yards, took over late in the second quarter. With 5:19 left in the third, he hit receiver Clint Beauer on a slant that went for a 25-yard touchdown and a 17-7 lead. Beauer finished with 8 catches for 138 yards.

Thousand Oaks scored on quarterback Anthony Gonzales’ 12-yard bootleg 1:25 into the fourth quarter to make it 17-14.

Thousand Oaks started as it finished. The Lancers were penalized 11 times for 60 yards in the first half. Eight of the infractions were on the defense for offside--3 in Canyon’s 80-yard touchdown drive in the first quarter.

Chris Peery crashed in from 3 yards and Steve Mann’s point-after tied the score, 7-7, with 5:25 left. Beidle completed all 3 of his passes on the drive to Beauer.

After its lackluster loss to Buena last week, Thousand Oaks appeared to have regained momentum when junior tailback Mike Lindsay ran 57 yards for a touchdown on the game’s third play from scrimmage. Lindsay, however, had only 3 yards in 10 more carries.

Canyon came right back on Peery’s run with 56 seconds left in the first half. Brian McKie kicked a 37-yard field goal to give the Cowboys their first lead, 10-7.