Canton holds off Western

By C.J. Risak
Staff writer

Some games are just, well, offensive.

The opposing coaches at Friday's Walled Lake Western-at-Canton football game felt that way, although their feelings had little to do with the yardage totals posted by their teams.

Certainly the offenses on both teams had a lot to say in the outcome. And neither coach had anything bad to say about their respective offenses, not with a score like this one, 33-26.

With Canton on top.

"I was so, so disappointed with the way we finished the game defensively," said Canton coach Tim Baechler. "We're much better than that. We just didn't make the plays at the end."

Some of that was not all the Chiefs' fault. Western, led by quarterback Peter Mooney, tailback Greg Hay and wide receiver Bryan Kowaleski, staged a terrific fourth-quarter comeback after trailing 26-7 at the end of the third.

Kowaleski snared an 18-yard touchdown pass from Mooney on a third-down-and-goal play with 2:23 left to make it 33-28. This was no easy reception; Canton's Eric O'Shaughnessy raced step-for-step with Kowaleski into the corner of the end zone and seemed to have position for the interception, but Kowaleski leapt over him and took the ball away.

"I'll give 'em credit for that, they did make some great plays," Baechler said of the Warriors. "We were lucky. If our offense doesn't show up tonight, we lose.

"We've got a solid defense . . ."

Baechler didn't have to finish his thought. Simply put, his defense was outplayed in this game.

But the reverse was true as well. The Warriors' defense, and special teams, were their undoing.

"I know what the turning point was," said Western coach Mike Zdebski. "A blocked punt, a snap over the punter's head in the first half. That forced us to come from behind.

"There's your turning point."

It truly was a strange game of emotional flows. Western started with all the momentum, taking the opening kickoff and marching 66 yards in six plays, with Hay gaining all of them, the last 35 on a quick trap off the left side. Todd Monfette's kick made it 7-0 just 3:10 into the opening quarter.

One thing about the Warriors: They are full of surprises. Monfette's kickoff was a pop-up that dropped behind Canton's first line of players and was recovered by Western's Brandon Yaldou at the Chiefs' 31.

The Warriors drove to Canton's 16, but on a fourth-down-and-12 from the 18 Steve Campbell intercepted Mooney's pass in the end zone, and that's when Western's fortunes began to change.

The Chiefs drove 80 yards in 17 plays, the last 2 covered by Julian Smith on a fourth-down play over right guard. Dutch Morrell's kick tied it at 7-all.

Key plays in the drive were three Shawn Little-to-Devin Thomas passes covering 17, 20 and 14 yards; the first two came on third-down-and-long plays, the third was on a fourth-and-8 from the Western 25.

After that, Western's special teams came to Canton's aid. Forced to punt after three plays on their possession, Warriors' punter Jason Lintz barely got a hand on the high snap; he was swarmed under at the Western 5-yard line.

Two runs by Travis McKinney resulted in a Canton TD and a 14-7 lead with 6:31 left in the half.

The Western special teams failed again when Hay fumbled on the kickoff return, Canton's O'Shaughnessy recovering at the Warriors' 23. A Chuck Schumacher burst up the middle covered all of that yardage and boosted the Chiefs' lead to 20-7.

Actually, it could have been worse for the Warriors. Their offense did touch the ball for seven plays on their next possession before Lintz was again forced to punt - but the ball barely left his foot this time before the kick was smothered by Canton's Bryon Sieferd at the Western 21.

The Chiefs drove to the 9 after the blocked punt, but Little's pass with :10 left in the half was picked off by Hay.

The first five minutes of the third quarter pleased Baechler, and why not? The Chiefs took the second half kickoff and drove 72 yards in 11 plays, all of them runs, the last 2 yards by Thomas off right tackle to make it 26-7 (the two-point try failed). And when Mooney fumbled the snap on a fourth-and-4 play on Western's next possession, the game seemed to be over.

It wasn't.

The Warriors started a 75-yard drive at the end of the third quarter, Mooney's 39-yard swing pass to Hay leading to his own 1-yard sneak that made it 26-14 with 11:00 left. The Chiefs countered with a six-play, 54-yard march after recovering a Western on-side kick, Thomas sliding the last 4 yards through the left side for the TD and a 33-14 Canton lead.

There was still 8:29 left, and that belonged to Western.

The Warriors traveled 58 yards in eight plays, a 15-yard pass interference penalty against Canton's Smith on fourth-down-and-10 keeping the drive alive. Hay went 11 yards on a quick trap for the TD and, with 6:38 left, it was 33-21.

Canton still seemed in control of its fate - until Little fumbled an attempted handoff and Josh Jones recovered for the Warriors at their own 31.

Mooney completed 7-of-9 passes for 73 yards in the drive to take them to the Canton 2, but an illegal substitution penalty against Western made it third-down-and-18, setting up Kowaleski's clutch TD catch.

Western did get the ball back at its own 30 with :47 left, but Mooney's third-down pass with :09 to go was intercepted by Smith, ending any comeback dreams.

McKinney led Canton's ground game with 84 yards on 14 carries, with one TD. Schumacher had 60 yards on 16 tries and a touchdown, and Thomas collected 47 rushing yards and two touchdowns, with three receptions for 51 yards.

For Western, Mooney completed 18-of-33 passes for 233 yards, with two intercepted, and Hay gained 110 yards rushing on 21 tries, scoring twice, and caught four passes for 67 yards. Kowelski added eight catches for 113 yards and a TD.

"We're proud of that," said Zdebski of his team's rally. But of their 2-2 record, he said, "Moral victories don't count in the standings. We're 2-2 and we could be 4-0."

Baechler had a somewhat similar thought about his team's 4-0 mark: "We're 4-0 with some problems. That's better than being 0-4 with some problems."

Can't argue with that.



cjrisak@oe.homecomm.net (734) 953-2108