TOWANDA – Canton has developed quite the winning tradition over the last handful or so years. The Warriors have made a pair of state semifinals over the last three years, and en route to doing so, have dominated much of the Northern Tier conference.
Heading into Thursday night’s game at Towanda, the last time Canton lost to the Black Knights was in 2017, or when the seniors on this year’s teams were in fifth grade. The Warriors have outscored Towanda 155-0 over the last three meetings, and 195-6 over the last four dating back to 2019.
So, while it mostly wasn’t the same people on the field on Thursday that were responsible for the current streak of success that Canton has had against Towanda, the Black Knights played like they were taking out seven years of frustration.
Led by Riley Vanderpool’s 226 rushing yards, the Black Knights gashed Canton for 282 yards on the ground while holding the Warriors to just five rushing yards, and despite committing 17 penalties for 173 yards, Towanda ran away with a 40-14 win over Canton.
“We played really well, we were the only thing that could stop us tonight,” said Towanda coach Jamie Wecker. “We could do whatever we wanted with the ball pretty much. Defensively we did a really nice job, but we’d just do something dumb and let them stay in the game in the first half. But they’ll grow from this and I think we’ll become better. This is a big confidence builder for our program.”
Canton, which has been blessed with a larger roster size than most comparable Class A schools over the last handful of years, is down in numbers comparatively this year, although it’s largely in line with many other schools of similar size, but that lack of depth combined with some injuries has led to needing to move around some personnel on both lines. That finally caught up to the Warriors on Thursday as they were overmatched up front on both sides of the ball, leading the lopsided margin in rushing yards.
“You’re not going to win with that. We just got a lot of guys out right now,” said Canton coach Tyler Sechrist. “We changed jerseys at halftime and put a wide receiver, Zach Colton, on the line and we had Dawson Burgess, who’s usually a running back, on the line as well. We don’t have a lot in numbers this year, so we just don’t have a lot of depth and it’s really showing with the injuries. If you have to put two of your guys that weigh 145 pounds on the line because you don’t have anyone else, you’re in a world of trouble.”
Canton quarterback Ben Fitch was under pressure all night. The Canton signal-caller was sacked eight times and flushed out of the pocket and forced to scramble on several other plays. He still managed to complete 14-of-25 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown and made several completions on the move and under pressure, but was also picked off twice as Towanda’s front seven made life miserable for him for much of the night.
“Our front seven is fast and they played physical tonight. They understand what their job is and they didn’t get out of position very much,” said Wecker.
Meanwhile, on the other side, it was all about Vanderpool, who racked up 323 yards of total offense, throwing for 97 on 6-of-10 passing, in addition to his 18 rushes for 226 yards, and he was responsible for five touchdowns, four rushing and one passing.
“Towanda has a strong line and they have a good team and they were able to dominate us up front,” said Sechrist. “We’re hoping to get some guys back healthy and we just need to stay together as a family and keep playing. The injuries have really made our inexperience and lack of depth show but at least some of these kids are getting experience and we’re just going to keep playing football.”
“Sometimes you can outrun your blockers and then you get tackled but Riley is smart, has good vision and patience, and he makes big things happen. He made a couple of big plays tonight where he should have been tackled,” said Wecker.
Vanderpool rushed for three of his four touchdowns in the first half, scoring from 47, 21 and 37 yards out. He had 110 yards at halftime, but the Black Knights only led by a single score, 20-14 at the break. That was largely due to Towanda committing 10 penalties for 108 yards in the first half alone, including five personal foul or unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
Those penalties aided both of Canton’s touchdowns, particularly the second one. Canton’s first touchdown was a 10-play, 77-yard drive that took 4:40 and ended with a three-yard run by Aydin Holcomb at the 10:01 mark of the second quarter to tie the game 7-7.
After Vanderpool scored two more touchdowns on consecutive drives, including one that started following an interception near midfield, Towanda led 20-7 with 4:11 remaining until halftime.
But the Black Knights then gave Canton an interception of its own, as Holcomb picked off Vanderpool near midfield after Towanda was pushed back 25 yards in penalties. A personal foul following the interception gave Canton 15 more yards, as did a pass interference foul, and four plays later, Canton pulled within a single score on Holcomb’s two-yard touchdown reception from Fitch with under a minute to play in the half.
But Canton wasn’t able to muster up much of anything in the second half. The Warriors punted twice and turned it over on downs twice, managing just 38 yards in the second half.
Towanda got Vanderpool’s fourth rushing touchdown of the night to open the second half, as he went in front 10 yards just two plays after ripping off a 62-yard run on the first play of scrimmage of the second half.
Vanderpool then helped Towanda capitalize on a fumbled snap on a punt for Canton that resulted in just a one-yard punt, and Vanderpool found Wil Shrawder for a five-yard touchdown reception early in the fourth quarter. Towanda wrapped up the scoring with the only touchdown of the night that didn’t involve Vanderpool, a three-yard run by Gage Evans with a minute to play.
Towanda 40, Canton 14
Canton (3-3) 0 14 0 0 – 14
Towanda (4-2) 7 13 6 14 – 40
First quarter
9:33 – (T) Riley Vanderpool 47-yard run (Wheaton kick), 2-67, :21
Second quarter
10:01 – (C) Aydin Holcomb 3-yard run (McRoberts kick), 10-77, 4:40
7:13 – (T) Riley Vanderpool 21-yard run (pass failed), 5-58, 2:48
4:11 – (T) Riley Vanderpool 37-yard run (Wheaton kick), 3-53, 1:26
:46 – (C) Aydin Holcomb 2-yard pass from Ben Fitch (McRoberts kick), 4-37, 1:11
Third quarter
10:59 – (T) Riley Vanderpool 10-yard run (run failed), 3-72, 1:01
Fourth quarter
11:13 – (T) Wil Shrawder 5-yard pass from Riley Vanderpool (Wheaton kick), 6-27, 3:44
1:00 – (T) Gage Evans 3-yard run (Wheaton kick), 6-45, 2:58
Statistics
C T
First downs 15 16
Rushes-net yards 34-5 32-282
Passing yardage 130 97
Passing 14-25-1-2 6-10-1-1
Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1
Penalties-yards 5-40 17-173
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Canton: Ben Fitch (21-(-17)), Bailey Gardner (9-25), Aydin Holcomb (2-4-1), Tyler Wright (2-(-7)); Towanda: Riley Vanderpool (18-226-4), Gage Evans (6-38-1), Caden Delamater (5-21), Jace Gunther (1-3), Rylee Sluyter (1-1), Tahshon Garner (1-(-7))
PASSING: Canton: Ben Fitch (14-25-130-1-2); Towanda: Riley Vanderpool (6-10-97-1-1)
RECEIVING: Canton: Aydin Holcomb (7-62-1), Rylan Wesneski (5-44), Monte Whitehead (1-16), Bailey Gardner (1-8); Towanda: Hayden Space (2-34), Wil Shrawder (2-20-1), Tahshon Garner (1-23), Rylee Sluyter (1-20)
Here’s Riley Vanderpool’s 5-yd TD pass to Will Shrawder early in the 4th quarter. Vanderpool finished with 323 total yards (226 rushing, 97 passing) and 5 TDs (4 rush, 1 pass) pic.twitter.com/Sb2TtrD2mK
— Matt Beltz (@MattBeltz_) September 27, 2024
