Tough Canyon Defeats El Modena

Canyon’s Komron Tarkeshian stood in there and answered questions the same way he ran Thursday night, getting plenty of second-effort yards in the process.

Tarkeshian and his teammates thoroughly dominated El Modena, 23-0, beating the kind of team that league champions have to beat.

So Tarkeshian listened, barely smiled, and answered:

“Yes, we can win the Century League.

“We’re definitely a team to be reckoned with.

“We have more heart than anyone can believe.

“We’re just going to get better.

“We will win the league.”

If Tarkeshian and his teammates can make their homecoming performance at El Modena a weekly ritual, then he might be on to something.

Tarkeshian rushed 22 times for 157 yards and the only touchdown Canyon needed, a two-yard burst over the right side of the line capping the game’s first drive. The drive went 72 yards, all but 27 on the ground--and all the rushing yards belonged to Tarkeshian, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound senior.

Canyon outgained El Modena, 320-86. Canyon’s defense held the Vanguards to 48 yards rushing, minus-2 in the second half.

The Comanches took a modest 10-0 lead into halftime. It could have been more, but two fumbles stalled drives inside the 10-yard line. One of those was salvaged with Scott Walker’s 24-yard field goal in the second quarter.

It remained 10-0 until the fourth, when Andy Kulonis’ 40-yard interception return for a touchdown sapped any Vanguard comeback hopes, and then Ryan Jennings recovered a fumble forced by Ryan Rodriguez at the El Modena 11, setting up Craig Scott’s one-yard scoring pass to Peter Frousiakis with 1 minute 33 seconds left.

El Modena Coach Steve Howard thought the interception return was the decisive blow to his team until someone reminded him of his kicker’s 51-yard field-goal attempt that hit the crossbar when the game was still competitive. John Chavez had plenty of leg, but the kick was a couple inches wide on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“That symbolized the game pretty well,” conceded Howard, whose team lost its fifth in a row and dropped to 1-5, 0-1 in league.

Just 2 1/2 minutes later, Kulonis picked the ball out of the air as Joe Edmisten juggled it. Walker’s point-after made it 17-0.

Canyon (4-2, 1-0) played well in all aspects of the game, though quarterback Scott said the Comanches weren’t nearly as intense as they should be. Tarkeshian said they will improve next week against defending league champion Villa Park.

“After we lost [the Southern Section playoffs] in the first round last year, our goal was to win a league championship,” Tarkeshian said. “Canyon has never won a Century League title and we want to be the first to do it.”