Foothill Takes No Chances With This Title

All week Foothill Coach Tom Meiss watched films of last year’s excruciating loss to Canyon that cost the Knights a league championship. This year, Meiss wasn’t taking any chances.

So he stayed with his starting offensive unit until almost the bitter end of a 35-0 domination of Canyon Friday night.

“We’re still shooting until the last six minutes,” Meiss said. “This was for the league championship.”

It was Meiss’ third league title in five seasons at Foothill. But Meiss believes it could have easily been his fourth in five years.

“I watched that film three or four times this week,” Meiss said. “It made me sick every time I saw it. There were some calls that we should have had. But what are you going to do?”

Meiss didn’t exactly get many calls Friday night either. Foothill had eight penalties for 80 yards, but it didn’t matter. Foothill (8-2, 5-0) had more than 400 yards of offense and it probably could have had 600 without some untimely holding calls.

Meanwhile, Canyon had 30 yards of offense.

Yes, 30 yards.

“That’s the dog pound,” cornerback Franklin Haynes said. “We’re like a pack of wolves the way we swarm to the ball. They couldn’t get anywhere on us.”

Haynes said the Knights remembered last year’s loss and they also read the paper this week.

“They said that they were going to win league,” he said. “We had to prove to them that they weren’t all that.”

But Haynes was all that, and then some.

Not only did Haynes make several huge hits and intercept a pass on defense, he ran wild on Canyon’s beleaguered defense. Haynes rushed 18 times for 185 yards and a touchdown. He also had runs of 34 and 45 yards called back because of holding penalties.

When Haynes wasn’t running through the Canyon secondary, Foothill quarterback Tyler Lang was passing over it. After a slow start, Lang completed 12 of 25 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown.

Foothill only led 7-0 after a quarter and 14-0 at halftime, but it was in control the entire game.

“We’re an impatient group,” Meiss said. “If we don’t do everything perfect, we get nervous. This is really the way it’s supposed to happen. You build on it. You build on it and then you build on it some more.”

Meiss kept building even when the Knights led 28-0 in the fourth quarter. The Knights threw, they faked a punt and then scored with four seconds left in the game.

After the game, a Foothill assistant coach could be heard saying, “What goes around comes around.”

Not only did Canyon’s offense never come around, it never got started. Canyon’s leading rusher Kormon Tarkeshian had 17 yards in 10 carries. Quarterback Craig Scott, who was pressured all night, completed only six of 17 passes for 43 yards with two interceptions.

Scott was sacked three times, once by Haynes’ brother Chris, for losses of 17 yards. Canyon finishes 7-3 and 4-1 in league.