Canadian Continues to Roll Toward Destiny

By Chris Doelle
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Updated: August 29, 2015

Defending 2ADI State Champion Canadian Takes Down 4ADII Bushland in Season Opener

Win streaks for all practical purposes aren’t that important, but they are impressive. To go 16-0 straight and have a regular season game tally of 19-0 (the best in the Panhandle) Canadian is giving notice that every game is more important than the win streak. Friday night pitted them against a formidable 4A Bushland Falcons, and although scheduling is always a factor, the gaudiest stat in terms of streaks for Canadian is 22-0 for season openers.

Not that the anticipation for Friday night was to see two of the Panhandle’s best quarterbacks in a classic shoot-out. However, the defenses decided that wouldn’t be the case, including a pick-six by Canadian LB Cade Throgmorton with 8:52 left in the Q3.

On the game’s first drive, Bushland finally halted Canadian’s progress on their 11 yard line. Canadian All-State kicker Benigno Heredia saved wasting the 64 yard drive by notching his first FG of the season from 27 yards. Head Coach Chris Koetting used the term “far from perfect” describing Canadian’s execution, but the Wildcats were still able to reel off 28 more unanswered points, with the 1st team defense holding the shut-out thru three quarters.

With 4:30 left in the game, Bushland QB Mathis punched in a TD from 1 yard out to prevent the shut-out and reserve QB Cameron Thomas tossed a 15 yard TD to Gage Climer with 32 ticks left. Those scores came much later after Canadian muffed a punt on their own 13 in Q3, but the Wildcat 1st team defense held Bushland scoreless in the red zone redeeming their punt receiver by not giving up easy turnover points.

Tanner Schafer, Canadian’s All State and MVP quarterback, was 15 of 24 with 180 total passing and no INT with three quarters of service. Rather pedestrian for Schafer, however, he might have just been getting warmed up whenever they sat him out in Q3 in favor of giving the reserve QB more experience. Canadian also pulled out the halfback pass by RB Chance Cook (111 on 11 carries) to Manny Ramsey for a 74 yard TD. Obviously Canadian doesn’t mind if opponents notice early in the season that Cook can throw down range almost as good as Schafer.

Bushland showed off some brutal rushing yards by RB Bostyn Andrews going 101 yards on 22 carries. He will be a threat to all of the 4A opponents in the 1-4A District to go along with the passing attack of QB Mathis (16 of 28 for 91 yards, 2 INT) which should be well tuned for conference play. The kickoff receiving team for Bushland also displayed some moxie with several kickoff returns to mid-field with Canadian defenders making TD saving tackles.

Canadian’s fast and furious defensive ends came as advertised, with DE Cory Chidester racking up 3 sacks on the night. At that rate, Chidester could break some long standing state sack records in 2A. And next week it could be DE Cooper Trolinger’s turn to notch multiple sacks.

Canadian goes on the road to 2A Memphis next Friday to face a much improved yet lower ranked Cyclone team. The Cyclones will also have their shot at dethroning the current defending 2ADI State Champions and will be expected to make the best of it on their home (real grass) turf.

By Jerry Brunson, Canadian Wildcats correspondent

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