Canyon Gets Outrun by Pomona, 18-7

Some teams run the ball because they can. Others do it because they must.

Pomona and Canyon filled those roles Thursday night, when the visiting Red Devils raced to an 18-7 season-opening victory in front of 550 at El Modena High School.

Pomona running back Eric Shyne carried the ball 18 times for 226 yards and two touchdowns, including an 85-yard jaunt with 8:39 remaining to put the game out of reach.

At first, it wasn’t easy for Shyne, who rushed 13 times for 60 yards before breaking off runs of 35, 85, 20 and 26 yards in his last four carries. It was part of the master plan.

“We worked on changing a couple of things to power down on the blocks and to run the draw in the second half,” Shyne said. “But it was also the [Pomona] defense. We expected them to run the option and practiced for it, and shut it down at the end.”

Eight Canyon runners carried the ball 39 times for 125 yards, mainly to keep the pressure off sophomore quarterback Brad Lusk, who completed two of 10 passes for 17 yards. In addition to giving Lusk some relief, first-year Canyon Coach Brent McKee also wanted to keep Pomona’s speedy runners (32 rushes for 290 yards) off the field.

“The plan to run was to keep the clock moving so we could keep their offense on the sidelines,” he said. “You can see how fast they are when they get going and that’s what we were afraid of happening.”

Canyon jumped ahead, 7-0, on senior halfback Travis Tolly’s 37 yard touchdown run with 6:54 remaining in the half.

Pomona scored 52 seconds before halftime on Odell Howard’s 27-yard pass to wide receiver Joe Steel. Shyne scored from 35 yards outs at 3:40 of the third quarter and ran for his other touchdown on the next series.