La Canada Stifles Glendale, 16-0

Midway through the fourth quarter of a nonleague football game Thursday night at La Canada High, the Glendale ball boy nervously paced the sideline and repeatedly issued a desperate plea: “Come on, guys, clap it up! Wake the dead!”

The response from the sullen team was minimal. Most already sensed their demise.

Glendale, which mustered only two yards passing and 59 yards rushing, fell to La Canada, 16-0.

“If we didn’t get some experience from this, it’s going to be a long year,” said Glendale Coach Don Shoemaker, whose team lost its opener to Alhambra, 19-10.

La Canada (1-1) apparently gained something from its opening, 12-7 loss to Crescenta Valley. The Spartans gained 232 yards in total offense to go with a suffocating defensive effort.

La Canada, which led, 10-0, at halftime, took command of the game with a drive that began late in the third quarter and included 13 running plays and one pass. Paul Traughber, who led all rushers with 82 yards in 18 carries, applied the finishing touch with a three-yard touchdown run a little more than a minute into the fourth quarter. The extra-point attempt failed.

“Man, that was a hell of a drive,” La Canada Coach Nic Larez said. “It just snuffed them.”

Glendale mounted a rare threat on its ensuing possession, advancing to its 45-yard line on two pass-interference penalties and a short run. But that’s as far as the Dynamiters got before punting.

Glendale quarterback Erik Kiesau, a junior who passed for 206 yards in his varsity debut last week, completed only two of six passes for 17 yards before being replaced in the second half by Robert Kulp.

An apparent 39-yard touchdown pass from Kiesau to John Martell was nullified by a penalty in the first quarter. Later in the same series, Sang Lee missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt.

“That kind of took the wind out of our sails,” Shoemaker said of the failed drive. “And, right now, we don’t have the leadership to overcome something like that.”