Local Sports

Canton football blanks South Williamsport 50-0 in showdown of Class A contenders

CANTON–Four quarterbacks lined up under center and three completed passes. Five players ran the football.

And that was just in the first quarter Saturday at Miller A. Moyer Stadium.

Canton coaches are like mad scientists during the week, drawing up a seemingly endless list of plays and schemes. The players are like sponges, absorbing it all and adjusting in a snap.

These days, whatever the coaches draw up, the players brilliantly execute and the Canton machine gobbled up another opponent Saturday afternoon. The Warriors dominated as much with their minds as their strength, blanking South Williamsport, 50-0 in a showdown between District 4 Class A title contenders. Canton (5-0) produced its fourth straight shutout and six players scored touchdowns as it made quite a statement a year after reaching the state semifinals.

“It’s fun. With the athletes we have at the high school level, to give defenses that much to try and plan for, I think they’re heads have to be spinning,” Canton coach Tyler Sechrist said. “We’re blessed at Canton to have the athletes we do this year.”

“That is a big part of why our offense is successful,” Weston Bellows said after playing three offensive positions, totaling 132 yards and scoring a touchdown. “They have so many things to prepare for and so many people who are threats. We have athletes everywhere and I think that’s a huge part of our success.”

Canton has the linemen, too, as Mason Harold, Mason Nelson, Gage Pepper, Brenen Taylor, William Colton and Rian Eberly paved the way for 363 yards. The Warriors showed excellent balance and produced a season-high 165 passing yards with Bellows, Austin Allen and Holden Ward going 8 of 11.

Possessing powerful linemen and dynamic playmakers, Canton likely could punish a lot of opponents simply by running a vanilla offense. But the Warriors are thinking big picture and doing so has made it a fantastic team over the last five years, one which has gone 41-7. Building an arsenal which can run anything thrown it way has played a crucial role in Canton becoming one of the state’s model Class A programs.

In addition to rotating so many players in and out of the game and using them at different positions, Canton was lining up in shot gun formations, under center; giving unbalanced looks and switching things up as often as a politician does his words. Seemingly every button the Warriors pressed was the right one as they built a 23-0 halftime lead and then dropped the hammer with a 27-point third quarter eruption to win their 19th straight regular season game.

“We have three quarterbacks who can play equally as well and we’re playing different schemes. Almost no defense can prepare for all that,” Pepper said after shining on both sides of the ball. “We have 5-6 guys that can run the ball just as well as anyone in the league. It makes it nice for us linemen. If we do our jobs, they’re going to do theirs.”

That has been the case all season and Canton remarkably has scored 207 straight points since its opening game against Union. Five different players scored Canton’s first five touchdowns and the Warriors continued showing they are every bit as intelligent and unselfish as they are versatile and tough.

“Their football IQs are off the charts and that allows us to do so many things on offense and defense,” Sechrist said. “With the quarterback situation we have, this might not work at most places, but our kids are selfless. They don’t care who does what. They just want to win games and they’re all good enough to do it, so I don’t see why we don’t keep them all playing. I like the way they’re playing and not one guy gets mad at about it. They just do what they need to do.”

That is the same mentality the defense utilizes. It’s a unit which would make even grumpy Bill Belichick smile because each player embraces the simple of philosophy of doing his job. Every Warrior doing his job so effectively has allowed Canton to do something no area team has during the 2000s and shut out four consecutive teams. Doing that Saturday was especially impressive, considering South (3-2) had scored 130 points in three consecutive victories and entered the contest averaging an area-best 411 yards.

The Warriors swarmed all afternoon and the starters surrendered just 46 yards. So stout was Canton that it held South without a first down until nearly midway through the third quarter and by that point it was 37-0. The Warriors excelled at all three levels and limited South to 32 first-half yards on 20 plays while building their 23-0 advantage.

This is a defense as opportunistic as it is stifling and it has scored three touchdowns the past two weeks. Michael Davis ripped the ball from the carrier in the third quarter, racing 56 yards for a touchdown. On the next series, Harold delivered a jarring hit which forced a fumble. Bailey Ferguson ran for a 10-yard touchdown two plays later and Canton was up 50-0 with more than three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“Any time coaches talk before the game, they say do your job and we’ll do fine. I think we all do our job pretty well,” Pepper said. “I could not care less if I get a single tackle as long as everyone is doing their job and we’re winning. It’s just a team effort.”

That is what it takes to slow South’s running game. The Mounties had overwhelmed their last three opponents on the ground and had two running backs averaging both more than 100 yards per game and more than 17 yards per carry. Canton, however, allowed just 67 yards on 25 carries and recovered four fumbles.

“We definitely wanted to stop their run and make their receivers beat us,” Bellows said, “We were in man most of the game and putting our athletes on their athletes and, fortunately, it worked.”

South’s defense held its own during the first half and linebackers Ryan Casella and Austin Bowersox were everywhere, consistently making good plays. Canton’s defense, however, kept pinning South back deep in its own territory and that gave Canton short fields to navigate. The turnovers were a major blow, too, coming in a game where South knew it had to execute especially well to have a shot at the upset.

Canton put everything together in the second half and the offensive line took over. Holden Ward (105 total yards) ripped off a 32-yard touchdown run on the third-quarter’s first play and he found Riley Parker for a 3-yard touchdown a series later. Ferguson’s 10-yard touchdown made it five straight offensive series with a score going back to the second quarter as Canton landed the knockout blow.

“They were a tough line, probably the toughest we’ve seen so far,” Pepper said. “In the beginning we got a little out of sync but we got our blocking assignments down and figured it out in the second half.”

South fumbled the game’s opening kickoff but the defense made a stand and forced a punt. Canton, though, took the lead on its second series when Parker broke loose for a 47-yard touchdown, scoring for a 19th straight game. Ben Ferris delivered a big hit to stop a Canton drive at the 2-yard line, but the Warriors forced a quick three-and-out and went up 14-0 moments later on Bellows’ 3-yard score.

Allen and Holden Ward found Ferguson and Bellows for first downs on third-and-longs to keep consecutive drives going and even when things went wrong, they turned out right. Hudson Ward recovered an errant snap, reversed field and covered about 10 yards on a 1-yard touchdown run. Ferguson then hit a last-second 33-yard field goal, giving Canton a 23-0 halftime lead as everything the Warriors worked on in the lab looked even better on the field.

“Our line is huge. I make sure I tell my linemen after every play, ‘good job,'” Bellows said. “Our line should get more credit than it does because they’re the ones who make our run game great.”

Canton 50, South Williamsport 0

South 0 0 0 0–0

Canton 7 16 27 0–50

First Quarter

C-Riley Parker 47 run (Bailey Ferguson kick), 6:59

Second Quarter

C-Weston Bellows 3 run (Ferguson kick), 8:12

C-Hudson Ward 1 run (kick blocked), 4:06

C-Ferguson 33-yard field goal, :09

Third Quarter

C-Holden Ward 32 run (Ferguson kick), 11:47

C-Parker 3 pass from Ward (Ferguson kick), 8:48

C-Michael Davis 56 yards fumble return (Ferguson kick), 5:55

C-Ferguson 10 run (kick failed), 3:13

TEAM STATISTICS    S C

First Downs  7 16

Rushes-yards 25-67 51-198

Passing yards      96 165

Comp-Att-Int 8-19-0 8-11-0

Total yards 163 363

Fumbles-lost       4-4 1-0

Penalties-yards    5-40 6-55

INDIVIDUALS

RUSHING: South, Ryan Casella 8-37; Caden Harris 9-17; Amir Kemrer 6-13; Kaiser Kistner 1-5; Radley Knapp 1-(-5). Canton, Riley Parker 8-79, TD; Holden Ward 8-48, TD; Ben Fitch 3-23; Weston Bellows 5-23, TD; Bailey Ferguson 1-10, TD; Hayden Ward 4-10; Hudson Ward 2-2, TD; Austin Allen 3-2; Aydin Holcomb 2-1; Michael Davis 1-0.

PASSING: South, Knapp 8-19-0, 96 yards. Canton, Allen 4-6-0, 91 yards; Ho. Ward 3-4-0, 57 yards, TD; Bellows 1-1-0, 17 yards.

RECEIVING: South, Landyn Gephart 5-75; Dylan Scheller 3-21. Canton, Bellows 3-92; Ferguson 2-37; Parker 2-17, TD; Hu. Ward 1-19.

SACKS: South, Austin Bowersox, Garrett Cooley, Ryan Casella 1/2, Ryan Fry 1/2. Canton, Mason Harold.

RECORDS: Canton 5-0. South 3-2.