CANTON — The Canton football team overcame a shaky first half to rally past Northwest Area, 45-29, in District 4 Class A first round playoff action here Friday night.

The Warriors rallied from a 22-12 halftime deficit as they overcame turnovers and penalties while the defense made several big plays and Bailey Gardner ran roughshod over the Rangers.

Coach Tyler Sechrist spread a little inspiration around during intermission.

“I said we can't quit, you’ve got to believe,” he said. “We shot ourselves in the foot, we were our own worst enemy that first half, and at the end of it, and it really hurt us.”

 

“And I said, anybody opens their mouth the second half, because we had too many personal fouls, I said, I'm bringing you right out of the game. We challenged them and they came out ready to play.” 

Gardner, who finished the game with more than 250 rushing yards, ignited the rally as he scored touchdowns on three of his first six touches in the second half.

He tallied on a 20-yard run just one minute into the third quarter, then scored again on a 22-yard run with 9:57 on the clock. The latter TD put Canton in front for the first time, 24-22. Gardner broke loose on a 35-yard TD run at the 6:29 mark and added the PAT run to make it 32-22.

In between each of those TDs, the Warriors forced Northwest turnovers. Owen Moore recovered a Ranger fumble at the Northwest 25 and Brayden Tucker added a fumble recovery to end a Ranger threat at his own 15. 

The final TD in that onslaught was set up by a 37-yard Brooks Wesneski-to-Jack Whitehead pass.

Canton would tack on two more TDs in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.

The first came on Gardner’s 15-yard run just six seconds into the period. Penalties nullified a successful PAT run and on the replayed down resulted in a failed PAT attempt, leaving the home team leading, 38-22.

Northwest fumbled the ensuing short kickoff and Marcus Sollomon was there to pounce on the loose pigskin at the Rangers’ 40.

Two players later, Brooks Wesneski found a wide open Rylan Wesneski behind the defense and hit him over the shoulder in stride with a 37-yard TD pass. Aaden Dowling addedCanton’s final point of the night with the PAT kick, giving the Warriors a 45-22 cushion with 11:06 remaining in the game.

Moore would come up with an interception on Northwest’s next possession at the Canton 15, but the Warriors coughed up the ball at the Rangers’ 48 four plays later. 

The teams would swap possessions, then Northwest would put together a 5-play, 66-yard drive and score the game’s final TD on a 1-yard Cole Cavuto pass to Wyatt Olowski. Olowski followed with the PAT kick to make it 45-29 with 42.5 seconds to go.

The Warriors looked like they might dominate in the game’s early stages. They forced a three-and-out on the opening possession, then drove deep into Northwest territory before the Rangers’ Loegan Diltz came up with an interception at the 17.

Northwest converted the turnover into a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Cavuto at 1:37 of the first quarter. Olowski’s PAT kick made it 7-0.

It took the Warriors just one play to counter the Rangers’score as Gardner dashed 80 yards to paydirt down the home sideline. The PAT kick was unsuccessful and Canton trailed, 7-6, with 1:23 on the first quarter clock.

Canton was penalized twice for 20 yards on the ensuing kickoff and Northwest moved the ball to the Warriors’ 5 before settling for a 23-yard field goal by Orlowski and a 10-6 lead at 11:16 of the second quarter.

The Warriors were forced into a three-and-out on their next possession, but Levi Landau recovered a Northwest fumble at the Rangers’ 17. Five plays and two Northwest penalties later, Gardner scored on a 2-yard plunge. The PAT pass failed, but with 5:06 remaining in the first half, the Warriors had grabbed a 12-10 edge.

The Rangers wasted little time getting the lead back, however, as a pair of 15-yard Canton penalties set up a 37-yard Cavuto-to-Chris Martinez TD strike with 2:59 on the clock. The PAT run failed, but the visitors were back on top, 16-12. 

The Warriors coughed up the ball three plays later and three plays after that, Cavuto scored on a 2-yard keeper to give the Rangers a 22-12 advantage with just under a minute left in the half.

Both teams fell victim to ”yellow fever” with Northwest getting penalized 16 times for 148 yards and the Warriors being flagged 11 times for 107 yards.

Turnovers were troublesome as well as the teams combined for nine giveaways. The Rangers fumbled seven times, losing five with Marcus Solomon recovering two loose balls, and Landau, Tucker and Moore picking up one apiece. Moore also had an interception. Canton turned the ball over three times, twice on fumbles.

“That was huge, just the momentum swing there to get those turnovers,” Sechrist said. 

“Bailey Gardner was running the ball unbelievably tonight. He's a senior that's played hard for us for four years since his freshman year, and I think he wanted another game. He knew this was it if we lost, so he ran like a man possessed.”

Sechrist applauded his defense as well, especially Solomon.

“Marcus is a great leader for our team,” he said. “He's a senior too, and he doesn't want it to be over. He was all over the ball, he was all over on defense, and had a great night.” 

Gardner racked up 282 total yards on the evening, including 18 rushes for 256 yards and six TDs.

Canton outgained Northwest, 444-341. The Warriors ran the ball 45 times for 326 yards with Brooks Wesneski toting the rock 10 times for 37 yards and Brayden Tucker adding 26 more on eight runs.

Nine Northwest backs touched the pigskin, gaining 139 yards on 35 carries.

Brooks Wesneski and Moore combined for 118 yards on 6-for-12 passing with Wesneski going 4-for-8 for 89 yards. Whitehead and Rylan Wesneski had one reception apiece with each going for 37 yards. Tucker caught two for 26 yards and Gardner added two catches for 18 more.

Cavuto was 10-for-15 with two TDs. Orlowski and Ben Bonham snagged three aerials apiece for 74 and 63 yards, respectively, and Martinez had two receptions for 62 yards.

Canton was not unfamiliar with comebacks.

We've been down a couple times this year,” Sechrist said. “Our first game against Cowanesque, we were down by nine going into the fourth quarter and scored three unanswered (TDs). I just challenged them … and they played hard.”

Canton travels to first-seeded Montgomery next Friday for the semifinals.

Tim Taylor

6:35 AM (54 minutes ago)

to me

Canton 45, Northwest 29

Northwest          7 15 0 7 — 29

Canton          6 6 26 7 — 45

First quarter

N—Cole Cavuto 1 run (Wyatt Olowski kick), 1:37

C—Bailey Gardner 80 run (Kick failed), 1:23

Second quarter

N—Olowski 23 field goal, 11:16

C—Gardner 2 run (Pass failed), 5:06

N—Cavuto 37 pass to Chris Martinez (Loegan Diltz run), 2:59

N—Cavuto 2 run (Run failed), :53.9

Third quarter

C—Gardner 20 run (Run failed), 11:00

C—Gardner 22 run (Pass failed), 9:37

C—Gardner 35 run (Gardner run), 6:29

Fourth quarter

C—Gardner 15 run (Brooks Wesneski run), 11:54

C—Brooks Wesneski 37 pass to Rylan Wesneski (Aaden Dowling kick), 11:06

N—Cavuto 1 pass to Olowski (Olowski kick), :42.5

TEAM STATISTICS

       N      C

First downs  15     19

Rushes-Yards       35-139  45-326

Passing yards      202    118

C-A-I  10-16-1 6-12-1

Total yards  341    444

Fumbles-Lost       7-5    3-2

Penalties-Yards    16-148   11-107

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Individual Stats

Northwest Area

Rushing

Noah Arnett 11-35, Caleb Ide 4-31, Cole Cavuto 8-27-2, Robby Voyton 3-17, Logan Diltz 3-13, Jake Ide 1-11, Ben Bonham 3-3, Mason Bilbly 1-3, Team 1-(-1)

Passing

Cole Cavuto 10-15-202-2-1, Ben Bonham 0-1-0-0-0

Receiving

Wyatt Olowski 3-74-1, Ben Bonham 3-63, Chris Martinez 2-62-1, Noah Arnett 1-6, Boone May 1-(-3)

Canton

Rushing

Bailey Gardner 18-256-6, Brooks Wesneski 10-37, Brayden Tucker 18-26, Jaiden Ortiz 5-13, Team 1-(-1), Owen Moore 3-(-8)

Passing

Brooks Wesneski 4-8-89-1-0, Owen Moore 2-4-29-0-1

Receiving

Brayden Tucker 2-26, Bailey Gardner 2-18, Rylan Wesneski 1-37, Jack Whitehead 1-37

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