HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : New Cast Draws Raves in 44-6 Canyon Win

Who is Mark Santos and what in the name of Harry Welch is he doing starting at tailback for the Canyon High football team? In a playoff game? And rushing 15 times for 128 yards and 3 touchdowns?

“I thought he was excellent,” Welch, the Canyon coach, said of Santos, a sophomore replacement for injured Chris Peery. “He ran quickly, cut sharply.”

Said Santos: “I’m real surprised.” So, too, must have been the Canyon football faithful who braved the Friday night chill to watch Welch’s new-name Cowboy offense flatten visiting Camarillo, 44-6, in the first round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs.

Canyon (9-2) plays Hawthorne, a 13-0 winner over Pasadena, on Friday at Hawthorne.

On the bench because of ankle injuries were Peery, the Cowboys’ leading ballcarrier with 1,088 yards, and wide receiver Clint Beauer, the team’s leading receiver with 40 catches.

On the field for Canyon was Santos, a substitute for most of the season, who ran for touchdowns of 1, 2 and 9 yards. Joining him was wide receiver Joe Wade (5 receptions, 59 yards) and fullback Robert Leary (8 carries, 34 yards). Leary turned screen passes into scoring plays of 27 and 43 yards and finished with 4 receptions for 106 yards.

Directing the attack was a familiar face mask--quarterback Rod Baltau, who completed 12 of 18 passes for a near-career-high 226 yards and 2 touchdowns.

“Canyon’s a pretty damn good team,” Camarillo Coach Carl Thompson said. “They ran right over us, outmanned us.”

Canyon, winner of 9 in a row, rolled up 468 yards and 20 first downs to the Scorpions’ 282 yards and 10 first downs.

Santos ran 1 yard for a touchdown to open the scoring late in the first quarter.

On the first play after the ensuing kickoff, Camarillo quarterback Wes Nathaniel ran untouched around left end for an 82-yard touchdown. A 2-point conversion pass failed, however, and Canyon led, 7-6.

Santos scored a second touchdown, from 2 yards, and Brian McKie booted a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter.

With 1:36 left in the half, Baltau directed a 4-play, 53-yard drive that featured consecutive completions to Wade and culminated with a screen to Leary, who smashed 27 yards down the right sideline for the score.

“We needed it from different people tonight,” said Baltau, who also rushed for 21 yards in 5 carries. “Santos was awesome. He filled in more than adequately. The other receivers did well, too.”

So did sophomore linebacker Scott Blade, who joined the varsity this week to replace Justin Lee, who underwent knee surgery. Blade blocked Ernest Rittenhouse’s first-quarter field-goal attempt to thwart Camarillo’s first drive.

Other new-names included running backs Mat Porcellino, Welch’s 5-foot, 3-inch “mutt” who rushed for 30 yards in 5 carries, and David McDivitt, another graduate from the sophomore team, who added 20 yards in 7 carries.