Canyon Holds On for Title

For Harry Welch, silence was golden Friday night at Canyon High.

Golden as in the Golden League football championship. Canyon (7-2, 4-0 in league play) captured its sixth title in Welch’s 7-year tenure with a dramatic 10-7 victory over Palmdale.

Welch, however, disdaining his usual evening of hollering, seemed almost as pleased after the game with his healthy vocal chords.

“Hey,” Welch said. “I still have a voice.”

Considering Welch’s history of hoarseness, that was surprising. It was even more surprising because he was given plenty to shout about from the opening kickoff to the game’s dramatic final play.

With 1 second remaining and Palmdale on the Cowboys’ 14-yard line, quarterback Cole Speer floated a pass into the corner of the end zone that was batted away by Jason Stanley.

Before the ball had hit the ground, it seemed, Canyon helmets flew and players swarmed onto the field.

“That catch should have been mine,” Palmdale wide receiver Shannon Culver said. “It was right in my hands, but he came up and hit it with his helmet.”

Said Stanley: “I tipped it. I didn’t hit it with my helmet.”

Welch said he watched the play as if it were in “slow motion.”

“I was thinking that if Palmdale came down with it, it would have been a great game, 13-10,” he said. “But this way, it’s an even better game.”

No matter the outcome, Canyon quarterback Rod Baltau played perhaps the worst game of his career. Baltau completed just 5 of 15 passes for 54 yards and threw an interception to set up the Falcons’ second-quarter touchdown.

Baltau also was sacked 3 times for minus-15 yards.

“They were blitzing backers and sometimes I felt pressure,” Baltau said.

Baltau, however, delivered in the clutch. On the final play of the third quarter, with Canyon facing fourth and 10 at the Palmdale 16, he hit Stanley with a 15-yard pass for a first down at the 1. Baltau then ran for the winning touchdown on the next play.

“I think Palmdale at first frightened us as a team,” Welch said of Baltau’s poor first-half performance (2 of 10, 21 yards).

Yet at halftime, Welch said he decided against doing any frightening of his own.

“I’m not opposed to cracking the whip,” Welch said. “But I just sat them down and told them to enjoy themselves.”

Said Baltau: “He told us what we had to do and we knew it.”

In the second quarter, Palmdale’s Mike Rodriguez intercepted a Baltau pass at the Palmdale 33 and returned it 17 yards to set up the Falcons’ score. Speer led Palmdale (6-3, 2-2) 50 yards in 11 plays, completing 2 third-down passes for first downs.

LaShante Parker ran 3 yards to cap the drive with 3:47 left in the half.

Canyon marched to the Palmdale 8 with 5 seconds left but couldn’t reach the end zone. After Baltau was sacked at the 13, Steve Mann booted a 30-yard field goal as time expired to make the score 7-3.