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Chiefs clamp down

Defense forces Lions into critical turnovers, offense controls clock

Saturday, November 04, 2006

BY RICH REZLER

News Sports Reporter

CANTON - The Canton High School football team, ranked No. 1 in Division 1, survived the hardest-hitting, most gut-wrenching two hours of its season Friday night, beating No. 7 South Lyon 14-10 in a Division 1 district final.

In a quickly played game that saw each team possess the ball just six times - with five of those 12 drives eating up more than 5 minutes of clock - scoring was at a premium. But poorly timed turnovers by the teams meant crunch time was extra exciting.

Trailing 14-10, South Lyon missed a 40-yard field goal attempt with just under 10 minutes remaining. Typically, a coach would assume his team would get the ball back with plenty of time on the clock. Friday night, that wasn't a given.

"When you have two ball-control offenses like this, there's no time for mistakes. You feel like you have to score every possession,'' said South Lyon coach Mark Thomas, whose team capped a 19-play drive that used 9:24 with a 20-yard Tyler Hockey field goal just before halftime.

Canton marched down the field, picking up five first downs before losing its third fumble of the game at the South Lyon 15-yard-line with 2:44 left. The Chiefs first two drives ended with fumbles inside the Lion 20.

South Lyon quarterback Arik Habay completed two passes to Nicholas Oberski. A roughing the passer penalty gave the Lions a first down at Canton's 35. Three plays later, South Lyon committed its first turnover - a fumble forced and recovered by the Chiefs' Deshon McClendon - at the Canton 15.

"That's the one bad thing about making the playoffs - only one team gets to go undefeated,'' Thomas said.

Canton players and coaches agreed South Lyon was its toughest test of the season heading into next Friday's 7 p.m. regional championship game against Saline.

"They were by far the best team we've played this year, but we stepped up when we needed to,'' said defensive lineman Donnie Laramie, the Chiefs leading tackler. "The coaches tell us we're the best defense in school history, so we just want to keep proving it.''

When the Canton offense wasnt's turning the ball over, it was effective, too.

Quarterback Steve Paye capitalized on the attention being paid to the Chiefs' wing-T backfield by completing all four of his passes for 83 yards and a score.

His 17-yard, play-action pass to a wide open William Turner made it 7-0 early in the second quarter and a perfectly thrown 38-yard strike to Nick Moores on 3rd-and-7 led to the Chiefs second score - an 8-yard run by Moores with 46 seconds left in the third quarter.

Moores led Canton with 92 yards on 17 carries. McClendon added 82 yards on 16 attempts. Ian McGee (11-85),

Marty Rochowiak (15-45) and Habay (8-22, touchdown) led South Lyon.

Rich Rezler can be reached

at rrezler@annarbornews.com.