All Quiet on Canyon Front

This is the story of a couple of guys who would just as soon not have any stories written about them.

It’s the story of two linebackers who, if they could, would spend all day hitting and all night tackling, whether anybody was watching or not.

It’s the story of Dave Johnson and Josh Miramontez, linebackers for Canyon High who play football simply because they love it.

“We don’t like people to know about us,” Miramontez said. “That’s the style of our team. We don’t want to prove we’re the greatest, we just want to play hard and get the job done.”

So far, they have been getting it done. The Cowboys, playing the toughest nonleague schedule of any Foothill League team, are 3-2.

And it isn’t difficult to figure out that Miramontez and Johnson are the keys to Canyon’s somewhat surprising success.

The telling statistic: in three victories, the Cowboys have allowed a total of 270 rushing yards. In two losses, they have allowed 542.

“It’s pretty much the same with every team,” Johnson said. “If you don’t have a good defense, you aren’t going to win.”

Canyon enters tonight’s showdown against rival Hart with victories over Valley View, Highland and Palmdale--all teams ranked in the top 10 of their Southern Section divisions when they played Canyon.

The Cowboys’ losses are to Crescenta Valley and Arroyo Grande, both ranked in the top five of Division III.

Their success has revived some of the hype surrounding the Canyon-Hart rivalry, which had lost some of its luster in recent years.

Hart has won the past six games and nine of the past 10. Canyon, which last defeated Hart in 1990, joined Hart in the Foothill League in 1992. The Indians have since outscored the Cowboys, 182-47.

But this year, Canyon players insist, will be different. This year, it won’t be Hart vs. Canyon. This year it will be Hart vs. heart.

“This is definitely our best chance to win in my four years here,” Miramontez said. “We’ve been putting up with losing to them all these years and we’re getting sick of it. Not to put them down, because we have a lot of respect for them, but for the first time in a long time, everyone on our team is going to believe we can win.”

That attitude, getting the whole team to believe they can win, is what Coach Larry Mohr has been striving for since taking over the program in 1994.

“That’s definitely something we focus on,” Mohr said. “We know we’re not extremely big, strong or fast but we play with a lot of heart.”

Coming from behind in all their victories proves that. Staying within a touchdown in their losses does too.

The Cowboys rely on Miramontez and Johnson to be the inspirational and play-making leaders in their 4-3 defensive scheme.

In the Cowboys’ 21-13 loss to Arroyo Grande, Johnson, the middle linebacker, left the game in the first quarter with a pinched nerve in his shoulder. Without him, the Cowboys allowed a season-high 347 rushing yards.

“In our defense the linebackers are the spearhead,” Canyon defensive coordinator Damon Leiss said. “They set the tone with big hits, making calls and getting reads. If we run it right, the linebackers will be making the plays.”

Johnson, a junior who earned second-team All-Foothill League honors as a sophomore, fits right into the Canyon program. He is the quiet type who prefers to lead by example rather than yell and scream at teammates.

“I’m just really not a loud guy,” Johnson said. “I like to have my actions talk.”

Many times those actions speak loudly. And Miramontez is there listening.

“I love playing with him,” Miramontez said. “When he makes a play, it gets me going. He’s a quiet guy but when he hits somebody hard it gets me a lot more fired up than talking.”

Miramontez, a senior who has shown great improvement since last year, is more vocal on the field. He can, however, also provide an inspirational hit.

On the opening kickoff of the Arroyo Grande game, Miramontez delivered a blow that Mohr called the best he’s seen in 18 years of coaching football.

Miramontez, in a full sprint, found a hole in the wedge and ran untouched to the Arroyo Grande ball carrier, who hit the ground instantly, fumbled and was unconscious for three minutes.

“It was an incredible hit,” Mohr said. “After the game people were telling me they heard it from where they were sitting in the stands. I’ve seen a lot of good ones, but that was the best.”

But despite such bone-crushing hits and a stone-wall defense, when it comes to telling people how good they are, Canyon players and coaches tend to speak softly--that is their shtick.

“At the beginning of the season I didn’t want to say too much because I didn’t really know what we had,” Mohr said. “But even if I know we have a good team I try to keep things low key.”

Canyon entered the season in the middle of the pack in most Foothill League predictions and they have been underdogs in every game so far.

That’s the way Johnson likes it.

“Everyone always picks us to lose,” he said. “But I like being the underdog.

“There’s not as much pressure that way. They say we’ve been surprising people, but we’ve been surprising everyone but ourselves.”

Tonight’s game against the six-time defending Foothill League champions will reveal whether or not Canyon is for real.

It’s will have to, because the Canyon players and coaches sure won’t.

“We don’t want people to know if we’re good,” Miramontez said.

“We know we can play and if we do it right, we’ll show everybody on the field.”

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