Saturday, November 8, 2003

CANTON TWP. - Chalk one up for the defense.

An unbeaten Canton High School football team that's utilized gaudy rushing numbers to roll up big victories all season, turned to the other side of the ball in Friday's 24-6 Division 1 district championship win over Westland John Glenn.

"That was team defense," Canton coach Tim Baechler said. "We were getting off the blocks and had 11 helmets to the ball on every play. I can't wait to watch it again on film. It was beautiful."

The task was obvious: Stop the Rockets' running game.

Tailback Matt Smitherman entered the game averaging 195 yards and two touchdowns per game. He rushed for 54 yards on 21 carries Friday, but you have to dig deeper into the statistics to truly see how effective Canton's defense was.

The senior back did not pick up a first down and was held to four yards or fewer on 17 attempts. Throw in four sacks of quarterback Vinny DeLuca and the Rockets finished with 39 cumulative rushing yards.

"We knew as long as we did our jobs Glenn would have no chance tonight," said senior linebacker Jake Powers.

The Chiefs, who host the winner of today's South Lyon-Detroit Catholic Central game next week, got all the offense they needed on the first possession of the game.

Devin Thomas capped the 8-play, 67-yard drive with a 21-yard run. The first of three Dutch Morrell extra points made it 7-0, a lead Canton would protect into halftime.

The Canton defense would have a hand in two of the Chiefs' third-quarter scores that put the game away.

After holding Glenn to no gain on its first possession of the second half, the Rockets bobbled the snap on a punt and gave the Chiefs the ball at their own 11-yard-line. That set up a 21-yard field goal by Morrell.

Later, the Chiefs stopped a Glenn fake punt. Two plays later, Thomas broke two tackles at the line of scrimmage, bounced outside and ran untouched down the sideline for a 44-yard score.

In between, Thomas - who finished with 87 yards on eight carries - added a 7-yard score.

Fellow halfback Travis McKinney added 75 yards and fullback Chuck Schumacher 40 for Canton.

"We have so many threats and block so well that we can come at you from anywhere at any time," Thomas said. "You can't just focus on one guy."

Glenn avoided the shutout when DeLuca hit Nathan Beard for a 24-yard touchdown with 1:48 remaining in the game. DeLuca finished 11-of-23 for 137 yards.

Rich Rezler can be reached at rrezler@annarbornews.com.