La Canada quarterback Joe Bell ran for 134 yards and threw the huge touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
By Tim Peterson
(La Canada) – Joe Bell hit Logan Miller in the end zone with a 12-yard touchdown pass with 4:39 left in the fourth quarter to lift La Canada to a 7-0 win over Muir Friday night in the Arroyo League opener.
The score capped an 11-play, 62-yard drive for the Spartans and proved to be the game winner. It was only the fourth possession of the game for La Canada. All three of its previous possessions consumed a lot of time but ended in fourth down stops. The Spartans finally broke through late in the fourth quarter.
La Canada head coach Dave Avramovich felt it was only a matter of time before his team would score. “We talked about it with our kids. We got to execute for four quarters, we got to run the ball. We wanted to shrink the game. We wanted to run the ball, run downhill and control the clock. We told our kids trust the process,” Avramoich said. “We did a good job of getting four, five, six yards towards the end of those drives. I was proud of our guys the way they executed and finished the game.”
In the first quarter the Spartans used 11 plays and drove from its own 20-yard line down to the 43 of Muir before being stopped on fourth down. They marched to the Muir 48 late in the second quarter working the ground game before again being thwarted on fourth down.
Muir had two possessions as well in the first half. One ended in a punt and the other on a missed 30-yard field goal.
Deveon Blaylock Jr. had 72 hard fought yards for Muir but it wasn’t enough.
The Mustangs were also stymied on fourth down at the La Canada 38-yard line in the third quarter.
After the Spartans go-head touchdown Muir used a no-huddle offense and quickly moved the ball down to the La Canada 19 mainly on the legs of Deveon Blaylock Jr. The Mustangs had a fourth and two with 1:24 left but the Spartans held there and were able to run out the clock.
For La Canada Bell ran for 134 yards on 27 carries and threw the touchdown pass. CJ Mattman rushed for 41 yards on nine carries before leaving in the second quarter with an injury.
Blaylock ran for 72 yards for Muir and Marquice Garrett had 76 rushing yards but that was the extent of the Mustangs attack.
“Our defense…anytime you can put a zero on a team that has the athletes like Muir has it’s a great game plan,” Avramovich added.
The Spartans improved to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the Arroyo League with the victory. Muir fell to 3-4 and 0-1. It was the first time ever the two schools had met in football.
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It’s not a secret! People sleeping on LC and I dont understand. The coaches in the area that know, they know. La Canasa has a good OL coach and good run scheme. They play old school football and their DL & LB group know how to fit. They stop running teams. They only struggle with teams that can throw good and they aren’t bad against hte pass either.
Coach Matt better update his resume. Ain’t no way we lose to them kids and everyone is cool. Ain’t no way! And, off a buy week!
If we had their coach, we would’ve smoked that team with our talent – their lineman whooped on us. They were way coached up but not even close to the talent.