FeedsCanton earns tough win at Plymouth
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Plymouth’s senior quarterback Matt Barrera (19) drops back for a pass against neighboring rival Canton on Friday night. It was a hard-fought game, but two late mistakes put Canton in position to win the grudge match, 35-24.Canton has powered through the first part of the football season like a freight train with stops at Ann Arbor Pioneer and John Glenn.
The powerful team stumbled across its first roadblock on Friday when they met cross-campus rivals Plymouth. It was like watching two of the fastest and toughest locomotives coming head to head on the same track. Both teams had a cargo hold filled with huge plays and big playmakers. But one had to give.
Canton derailed host Plymouth, 35-24.
The Chiefs and the Wildcats are easily the best two teams in the Western Lakes Conference and Canton had to pull out all stops to move to 3-0 on the season.
The victory was in good part due to the play of first-year senior varsity quarterback, Steve Paye and senior running back Deshon McClendon.
McClendon finished the game with 118 yards rushing on 16 carries and three scores. Paye went 3-for-6 for 80 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
“He seemed rattled at first but settled down,” said Canton Coach Tim Baechler of Paye. “He made some good throws and the two touchdown passes were perfect. He led us and was controlled and took care of the football well and I’m proud of him.”
It looked like Canton was going to set the pace of the game early when McClendon broke loose for a 77-yard score less than a minute into the game. Colin O’ Shaughnessy’s point-after was good for a 7-0 lead.
However, Plymouth had an answer for Canton. In fact, the Wildcats had three answers. With 7:59 left in the first, Plymouth cut into the lead with a 36-yard field goal from Jeffrey Lucco.
Then, almost midway through the second quarter, Myron Puryear capped off a 12-play drive with a one-yard lunge to give Plymouth a 10-7 advantage. Matt Barrera hit Chris Sanchez for a 33-yard score, making it a 17-7 game with 1:39 left in the first half.
Canton reacted in the only way they know how—with a score. Paye threw a perfect 20-yard spiral to Brandon Fender to cut the deficit to three, 17-14.
Plymouth made a costly error on its first possession of the new half. The Wildcats fumbled on their own 35. Canton’s Chris Bogdanski recovered and, on a second-and-1 from the 15, Paye handed off to McClendon who scrambled 10 yards, leapt and stretched for the final five for the score. The kick was good for the Chiefs and they took the lead, 21-17.
Paye connected with Dalton Walser for a 33-yard touchdown play and Canton started to pull away.
Plymouth didn’t give in.
The Wildcats received a spark when La’Broderick Caldwell returned a kickoff 91 yards to pay dirt. The score and extra point narrowed the gap to four, 28-24.
Canton closed the door with 4:13 left in the third when McClendon scored his third touchdown of the night. This time it was from five yards out.
Baechler said the coaching staff made a few tweaks on defense but stuck to the basic plan. He didn’t get down on his players at the half, either, but admitted to fixing some technical aspects.
“The kids were playing their hardest,” he said. “When we saw the film there were some technical things as far as coaching we had to fix, but the kids were playing hard.”
Plymouth stood tall after the game even though they fell to 1-2 overall. Plymouth Coach Jay Blaylock was pleased with the performance and resilience of his team.
“Our offensive coaches had a good game plan and the kids executed it and it showed,” he said. “We could do almost anything we wanted early. You need to do that against (Canton’s) offense— we need to control the clock and try to keep them off the field.”
After a tremendous first half, Blaylock knew his competition would come out a different team.
“We made some really good adjustments also,” he said. “Our coaches were doing a ton of teaching at halftime. We came out and made a mistake—the offense turned it over and that cost us and we had the one breakdown on a pass. But these are fixable mistakes.
“It’s hard to take a lot of positives from a loss,” he added. “The most glaring thing is our kids never quit. They fought to the end. When you have kids like that you can win football games. We’re proud of our kids.”
Puryear rushed for 96 yards on 12 carries for Plymouth. Sam Jones caught six passes for 52 yards.
Plymouth and Canton could meet again in the first or second game of the playoffs if all goes well for both teams.
“In our division you can’t look that far ahead,” Blaylock said. “I think it’s there in the back of our minds, but we have a tough division. We knew at the beginning of the year that we had one of—if not the—tougher schedules in the state and we have a lot of good teams left.”
Franklin is next for the Wildcats.
“We have to learn from what we did tonight and get better,” Blaylock said. “(Franklin) is going to be physical and it will be another battle.”
Kick off is at home at 7:30 pm.
Canton gets its first home game of the season tomorrow night when the Chiefs host Walled Lake Western at 4:30 pm.
