Quartz Hill Stuns Canyon, 12-6

The calendar says mid-October.

But a quick glance at the Quartz Hill High football team screaming and hugging and dancing and just generally going bonkers out on Canyon’s field Friday night showed a playoff-style celebration.

And why not? Let the Rebels yell.

On this night, Quartz Hill made Golden League history by felling league giant Canyon, 12-6, in a league opener.

The Rebels did it by outhitting the hard-hitting Cowboys. They did it by executing better than the normally flawless Cowboys. And they did it by making bigger plays than the traditionally well-prepared Cowboys.

In short, Quartz Hill (4-2) deserved the honor of being the first team to defeat a Harry Welch-coached team on Canyon’s own turf and only the second team to defeat Canyon in league play in Welch’s nine years.

In their wake, the Rebels left some rather stunned Cowboys.

“I’m looking for some hemlock,” Welch said, tongue in cheek. “Give me a cigarette and a mask. But the reason why they won is that they just played better.”

The winning score came on a six-yard pass from Rebel quarterback Jake Haro to Josh Patterson with just 2 minutes 19 seconds remaining and capped a seven-minute, 72-yard drive. It was set up on a third-and-seven play-action pass from Haro to Rob Keller that netted 38 yards to the Cowboy 19 and swung all momentum to the Rebel sideline.

“To win big games, you gotta gamble some,” Quartz Hill Coach John Albee said.

Trailing, 12-6, Canyon (5-1) started a hurry-up drive that moved the Cowboys to the Rebel 44-yard line with slightly more than a minute left. For a moment, it appeared as if Canyon might pull off the necessary heroics.

But any heroics were Quartz Hill’s. Cornerback David Nelson picked off a Kevin Bialas bomb intended for Matt Sinnott at the 15-yard line. Bedlam on the Rebel sideline was starkly contrasted by a glum feeling among Canyon’s homecoming crowd.

“I thought he was gonna beat me, ‘cause both my legs were hurt,” Nelson said. “But it was right in my hands and then I dropped it into my legs and closed my knees.”

He also closed out the Cowboys. Canyon had tied the score on a 17-yard fourth-quarter pass from Bialas to Jason Swan. Matt George missed the point-after and the score remained tied, 6-6. Quartz Hill then embarked on its time-consuming and Cowboy-killing drive.

The Canyon loss throws the league race out of whack. Coming into the game, Welch had said that the loser of this game would have “no chance” of winning the Golden League championship.

“Yeah, we’ll be fighting for second or third,” Welch said. “But that’s reality.”

Reality also meant that, without injured runners Dave McDivitt and Mark Santos, Canyon rushed for just 77 yards on the ground. But a rowdy Rebel defense had much to do with that.

Meanwhile, the Rebels ran for 186 ground yards (Nelson led with 72) in controlling the pace for much of the night.